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PRESENTED BY 



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THE SHEPHERD AFD HIS FLOCK. 



BY THE EEV. J. R. MAODUFF, D. D. 



MORNING AND NIGHT WATCHES. 32mo. gilt, 75 cts. , red edges. . 60 
THE WORDS AND MIND OF JESUS AND FAITHFUL PROMISER. 

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SUNSETS ON THE HEBREW MOUNTAINS 1 50 

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THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK 1 50 



E0BEBT 0AETEE & BE0THEES, New York 



THE 



SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK; 



OR, 



THE KEEPER OE ISRAEL AND THE 
SHEEP OE HIS PASTURE. 



BY 



J? K. MACDUFF, D. D., 

ATTinOPw OF " MOESESG A2TD SIGHT -WATCriES," "ilEMORIES OF GEXXESAEET," ETC., ETC. 



M I "will feed my flock, and I will cause thern to lie down, saith the Lord God," 

Ezek. xxxiv. 15, 

u So we thy people, and sheep of thy pasture, will give thee thanks for ever." 

Ps. lxxix. 13. 



NEW YORK : 

ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, 

No. 53 BROADWAY. 

1 866. 






/ 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTORY, . , . . 

THE- FLOCK ASTRAY, . . . . ' 

THE FLOCK SOUGHT AND FOUND, 

THE FLOCK FOUND, AND ITS RBTUKN TO THE FOLD, 

THE SHEPHERD OF THE FLOCK SMITTEN, 

THE SHEPHERD GIVING HIS LIFE FOR THE SHEEP, 

THE DOOR INTO THE SHEEP-FOLD, . . 

THE SHEPHERD GOING BEFORE THE FLOCK, . 

THE FLOCK FOLLOWING THE SHEPHERD, 

THE SONG OF THE FLOCK, 

THE GREEN PASTURES AND STILL WATERS WHERE THE 
ARE FED, 



FLOCK 



THE PATHS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS IN WHICH THE FLOCK ARE LED : 

THE SHEPHERD SEEKING THE FLOCK IN THE CLOUDY AND 
DARK DAY, 



THE SHEPHERD'S GENTLE DEALINGS WITH THE BURDENED OF 
THE FLOCK, 



THE FLOCK IN THE WORLD, . 

THE SHEPHERD'S GIFT TO THE FLOCK, .... 

THE SECURITY OF THE FLOCK, . . 

THE CRY OF A WANDERER, . . 

THE TREMBLING FLOCK COMFORTED, . 

THE FLOCK PASSING THROUGH THE VALLEY OP THE SHADOW 
OF DEATH, . . . . 



THE FINAL GATHERING OF THE FLOCK, 
THE ETERNAL FOLDING OF THE FLOCK, 



PAGE 
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20 

34 

50 

56 



90 
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112 

122 

132 

148 
166 
ISO 
18S 
204 
21S 

22S 
246 
262 



z J%p|;aft mttr jpig Jfloxk 



" GIVE EAR, SHEPHERD OF ISRAEL, THOU THAT LEADEST JOSEPH 
LIKE A FLOCK." — PS. 1XXX, "L 



u Bone Pastor— panis vera, 
Jesu, nostri miserere, 
Tu — nos pasce, nos tuere ; 
Tu — nos bona fac videre, 

In terra viventium. 
Tu, qui cuncta scis et vales, 
Qui nos pascis hie niortales, 
Tuos ibi coram ensales 
Cohaeredes et sodales 

Fac sanctorum civium." 

Thomas Aquinas. 



(Free Translation.) 

Good and tender Shepherd, hear us t 
Bread of Heaven, in love come near us! 
Feed us, lead us, and defend us ; 
Make us see whate'er Thou send us. 
In the land of earthly living, 
Is Thy wise and gracious giving ! 

Thou who feedst us here as mortal^ 
Ordering all things that befall us, 
Safe within celestial portals 
Oh I at last in mercy call us. 

Take us to the realms of love, 
fold us with Thy nock above, 
Let the peerless name be given, 
' Heirs and denizens of Heaven ! f 



THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK 

INTRODUCTORY. 

Conspicuous among the literary characteristics of the 
Bible are its truthful and loving pictures of nature. Pro- 
phets and Psalmists, though drinking their inspiration at 
a nobler fount, seem to revel amid the glories of the outer 
world. They fetch their grandest and sweetest imagery, 
— they illustrate and enforce their noblest lessons, from its 
fields and forests, its woods and streams and rivers. Even 
its animated tribes — not less than rock and mead, and 
flower and tree — become, in their hands, consecrated 
teachers, ministers of truth, interpreters of God. 

Were we to select, amid these symbols, one of more fre- 
quent recurrence and interest than the rest, it would be 
the constant and ever-varying representations given us of 
the Shepherd and the Sheep. Every thought, indeed, 
of the Hebrew of old was interwoven with pastoral life. 
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Amos, 
were Shepherds. The sheepfold was the prominent object 
in the landscape; the "pipings of the flocks" was the ever- 
familiar music. We need not wonder, therefore, to meet 
the favourite image at every new turn in the inspired 
Volume. The flock are now browsing on the green pas- 
tures, and reclining in tranquil repose by "the waters of 
comfort:" now following the footsteps of the guiding 



iD 



4 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

Shepherd ; now sprinkled in groups on the mountain side ; 
now gathered in some sheltered hollow, or under -the sha- 
dow of rock or terebinth, as a defence from the noontide 
heat : now a trembling lamb is seen in the Shepherd's 
arm ; now the bleat of some wanderer is heard on some 
distant crag ; or the Shepherd is rescuing it with his crook 
from perilous height, or swollen torrent, or ravening beast : 
now he is standing, in the gray twilight, by the wicket- 
gate, to pen his fleecy charge ; now, under the starry 
heavens, he is watching, in solitary vigil, the entrance of 
the fold. When the sacred writers seek, amid finite things, 
the noblest emblem of the Infinite, it is this — " The Lord 
is my Shepherd." The Bible may be almost said to begin 
and end with Shepherd picturings. It is a pastoral scene 
which meets us at the gates of Eden : we see Abel, with 
the firstlings of his flock, outside the portals of Paradise 
lost; and one of the last and most touchingly beautiful 
of inspired delineations, is that within the gates of Para- 
dise Eegainecl, when, under the same familiar figure tne 
Great Shepherd is still represented as " leading ■' and 
"feeding" God's Eansomed; conducting them from foun- 
tain to fountain of living water amid the pastures of 
the blessed. In no less than three of His Parables, 
besides other incidental references, Christ Himself has 
thrown an imperishable interest around the Shepherd and 
his Flock* These Divine pictures are photographed in 

* Those who are curious, sestnewcally and archseologically, as well as 
theologically, may spend some pleasant hours in the library of the British 
Museum in inspecting a few rare volumes, in which the preponderance, in 
early Christian art, of the symbol of the Good Shepherd and the sheep is 
forcibly shown and illustrated. As it has been remarked, " This emblem 



INTRODUCTORY. 5 

every heart. Few among us, I believe, can look, with a 
Bible-loving eye, even on a flock of sheep reposing in one 
of our own quiet valleys, or scattered over one of our green 
mountain sides, without having suggested thoughts and 
memories of unutterable sacreclness. How much more 
tenderly may we enter into the feelings thus expressed by 

has been unceasingly repeated under every possible aspect, and may be 
almost said to have been worn threadbare." Tertullian incidentally men- 
tions it as being even painted on the commnnion-cups or chalices of glass 
in that early age. Conspicuous among tte works referred to may be men- 
tioned, "'Bosio's Roma Sotteranea, (folio,) Roma, 1651," (see also De Rossi's 
recent volume ;) Munter's " Sinnbilder an der Alten Christ," (Altona ;) and 
Didron's " Iconogr. Chretienne ; or, The History of Christian Art in the 
Middle Ages." The author had marked several of the designs therein em- 
bodied, principally taken from rude frescoes and bas-reliefs in the Cata- 
combs, which he thought at one time might appropriately have been 
incorporated in these pages : (one of the frescoes is believed to be as early 
as the third century.) On second thoughts, their quaintness deterred him. 
The spirit of all of them has*been caught up and idealised in the beautiful 
frontispiece facing the title-page of this book. The most salient portions of 
the last-named of the above works have been translated for the English 
reader in one of the volumes of " Buhu's Illustrated Library," from which we 
cannot do better than quote the following condensed description : — " The 
figured monuments in the Catacombs," says Didron, " the sarcophagi, and 
more especially paintings in fresco, constantly present the figure of a Shep- 
herd, youthful, beardless, clad in a short tunic, striped with two longitudinal 
bands. 'He is standing, and bears upon his shoulders the sheep that had 
been lost, and that he loved. At his feet are the faithful sheep browsing, 
or lying down. In one design, taken from a fresco, the Shepherd has in 
his right hand a Pan pipe of seven reeds, whilst with the left heliolds the 
sheep securely on his shoulders." ... . " In other drawings given by 
Bosio," adds the translator, " the Shepherd holds the lost sheep more or 
less firmly on his shoulders, and seems more or less in fear lest it should a 
second, time escape. In p. 391 of 'Rom. Sott.,' the sheep is seated affec- 
tionately on the shoulder of the Shepherd, who, from its being so weary 
and so rejoiced to return to its fold, does not fear that it will again endea- 
vour to escape. The Good Shepherd himself seems sometimes more 
weary than at others of the burden which he bears upon His shoulders, or 
with the journey He has made in order to recover His lost sheep; but, 



6 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

a recent traveller in Palestine : — " It was while riding 
through the low hills covered with this vegetation, and 
coming out on the blighted flats of the Dead Sea, that one 
of those pictures passed before me which are ever after 
hung up in the mind's gallery among the choicest of the 
spoils of Eastern travel. By some chance I was alone, 
riding a few hundred yards in front of the caravan, when, 
turning the corner of a hill, I met a man coming towards 
me, the only one we had seen for several hours since we 
had passed a few black tents some eight or ten miles 
away. He was a noble-looking young Shepherd, dressed 
in his camel's-hair robe, and with the lithesome, powerful 
limbs and elastic step of the children of the desert. But 
the interest which attached to him was the errand on 
which he had manifestly been engaged on these Dead Sea 
plains from which he was returning. Bound his neck, and 
with its little limbs held gently by his hand, lay a lamb 
he had rescued, and was doubtless carrying home. The 
little creature lay as if perfectly content and happy, and 
the man looked pleased as he strode along lightly with his 
burden ; and as I saluted him with the usual gesture of 
pointing to heart and head, and the ' Salaam alik !' (Peace 
be with you!) he responded with a smile and a kindly 
glance at the lamb, to which he saw my eyes were directed. 

ordinarily, he appears unconscious either of the burden or the fatigue. 

At other times he is seen sitting actually overpowered with fatigue 

Figures of the Good Shepherd are usually placed in the most honourable 
parts of the Sarcophagi, and paintings in the Catacombs. They Occupy 
the centre of the tomb, or of the vaulting, and are placed in the middle of 
the archivaults and tympanum." — P. 346. See also Archbishop Trench on 
the Parables, p. 379, note, where reference is made to the above vojuirjes, 



INTRODUCTORY. 7 

It was actually the beautiful parable of the gospel acted 
out before my sight. Every particular was true to the 
story; the Shepherd had doubtless left his 'ninety and 
nine in the wilderness/ round the black tents we had seen 
so far away, and had sought for the lost lamb till he found 
it, where it must quickly have perished without his help, 
among those blighted plains. Literally, too, ' when he 
had found it, he laid it on his shoulders rejoicing.' It 
would, I think, have been a very hard heart which had 
not blessed God for the sight, and taken home to itself, 
with fresh faith, the lesson that God suffers no wandering 
sheep to be finally lost from His great fold of heaven. 
Even though a man may wander to the utmost bounds of 
his iniquity, yet the Good Shepherd, rejoicing, shall bring 
the wanderer home; 'for He will seek till He find him/ 
even on the Dead Sea sly>re." * 

May the Great Shepherd vouchsafe graciously to lead 
us, in the following pages, to the green pastures where 
He himself is found ! We desire reverently to listen to 
the solemn charge He addresses to all His under-shep- 
herds regarding the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath 
made them overseers : " Feed the Church of God, which 
He hath purchased with His own blood/' 

* See article in Fraser's Magazine. 



@DIj£ Jflflih %$ixK& 



••all we like sheep have gone astray, we hate turned evert 
one to his own way."— is. liii. 6. 



THE FLOCK ASTEAT. 

Mournful is this opening picture. It is composed of no 
quiet pastoral scene with verdant meadows and glassy 
waters, — the watchful sheep reposing under the loving eye 
and guardianship of their Shepherd. Shepherd and fold 
are forsaken. Bleak desolate mountains or rugged wilds, 
stretching interminably on every side, are covered with the 
scattered flock! 

The Bible contains many impressive descriptions of our 
state of alienation from God. The star wandering from its 
central sun — "wandering stars/' The prisoner bound in 
fetters of iron pining in his dungeon. The vessel driven 
from its moorings plunging in the tempestuous sea. The 
prodigal, self-exiled from the joys and amenities of home, 
feeding on the garbage of the distant wilderness. But we 
question if any figure more simply yet more graphically 
delineates the natural estrangement of the heart than that 
of the stray sheep. There is not only conveyed the idea of 
our lost condition, but the tendency to wander further and 
further through the bleak dreary wastes of an ever-sadder 
ruin. The sheep is proverbially the most helpless of 
animals. Others, by the power of natural instinct, can 
succeed in avoiding danger ; or, if they lose their way, 
they can retrace it with. ease. The sheep can do neither. 
When once it has wandered from the Shepherd's eye, and 



10 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

from the footsteps of the flock, instinct seems to forsake it; 
it is incapable of return. 

What a graphic twofold picture of apostasy is here ! 
" We all like sheep have gone astray." All have strayed 
from the Shepherd, (that is the universal characteristic), 
and then it is added "We have turned every one to his 
own way." Each has some bye-way or separate track of 
sin, down which, or along which, he rushes, widening his 
distance from the Shepherd-love of God. You may per- 
chance have seen, in early morning, the shepherd open- 
ing the gate of the fold, and the sheep scattering themselves 
over the mountain side. You can follow in thought a way- 
ward company — some stragglers of the flock — wandering 
beyond their appointed pasture. For a while they keep 
together along the green sward or heathy common. But, 
by and by, they are broken up into separate groups; these 
again into smaller still; until wanderer by wanderer seems 
to pursue each its own lonely path of danger. The bleat 
of each of the«e lost sheep seems to express its misery and 
helplessness; its sense of utter loneliness and isolation — 
away from the flock, and (what was more than all to the 
sheep of eastern countries) away from the Shepherd; roam- 
ing the mountains conscious of the forfeiture of his protec- 
tion and tender care. 

And is this not a picture — a faithful and graphic picture 
— of every sinner by nature; a spiritual wanderer— away 
from God — uttering the inward cry of restless misery on 
the bleak mountains of alienation and sin ? 

His state is one of utter loneliness and homelessness. He 



THE FLOCK ASTRAY. 11 

has lost his fold and his Shepherd — and in losing his God, 
he has lost his all. 

Suppose that by some fearful catastrophe we were sud- 
denly bereft of all our inlets of physical enjoyment, — 
the organs of sight and hearing — of taste and smell, — 
all the avenues by which the manifold pleasures of 
God's wondrous and lovely world open to us. If that 
glorious landscape, that azure sky, that gleaming sun, 
these spangled nightly heavens, were in a moment to be 
palled in blackness — the shadow of death. If the sweet 
perfume of flowers, wafted on the breath of the summer 
winds, were unfelt; if the dulcet tones of the human voice, 
the song of birds, the music of the waterfall, the wail of the 
forest, the wild cadence of the murmuring sea, — suppose 
all these woke no responsive chords on the broken harp — 
the ear being closed to which they discoursed their melody. 
3STay, more, let us suppose losses tenderer still. Ye who 
cling with doting fondness to your household treasures, en- 
shrining them in your heart of hearts, — suppose that, by 
some fell swoop, your hearth was in a moment swept and 
rifled; that death severed all you loved on earth from your 
embrace, and left you in a blighted world, isolated and 
alone. The son you expected to lean upon as your prop 
and staff taken from your side, — the loving daughter, 
whose tender care smoothed the furrow on your brow, 
parted from you, — her ingenious ministries of love and 
tenderness suddenly arrested. How intolerable the deso- 
lation resulting from one or all of these physical depri- 
vations and domestic calamities ! And yet, if we but 



12 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

pondered it aright, what would all be, compared with the 
thought of being severed from God: He who pities as a 
father; who loves as a mother; who comforts as a friend; 
who tends as a shepherd; who is as a God only can be! His 
favour is not only conducive to life, but it is life. To quench 
His light in the soul, is to quench the sun : it would be 
equivalent to plucking yonder blazing central fount of 
glory from the midst of its dependant planets, and leaving 
them to wheel their tortuous way in the blackness of dark- 
ness. Bereft of Him, we are bereft indeed. What a reality 
and deep pathos are there in the Psalmist's appeal — " How 
long wilt Thou forget me, Lord,/o?' ever?" A lost sheep! 
a lost soul ! lost its peace — its rest — its happiness — its 
eternal safety — " What is a man profited if he shall gain 
the whole world and lose his own soul?" 

We know, indeed, that one most sad and fearful fea- 
ture, in connection with this truth of human alienation 
and depravity, is the utter recklessness and indifference 
of the wanderer, — the lost consciousness that he is lost ; 
the downward, heedless rush to ruin, without one desire 
to return. And, doubtless, it is so with vast multitudes. 
They have become so steeped in forgetfulness and insen- 
sibility — they have drunk so deeply of the waters of Lethe 
— that they settle down in these strange pastures in reck- 
less contentment, without one thought of the old paths and 
the forgotten fold. 

But we see also, in the Bible picture of the lost 
sheep, what is a truer and more faithful delineation 
of the lost human heart. The strayed sheep feels its 
loneliness. Those who have at times witnessed the living 



THE FLOCK ASTRAY. 13 

type in our own mountain glens, may have noted in the 
plaintive bleatings— the wild restless look — the rushing 

hither and thither, in hopeless effort, to regain the lost 
path — that the animal has the one absorbing feeling of 
estrangement and abandonment. If you could interpret 
that language of look and sound, you would find that it 
was the longing for restoration to the fold. Men who 
have lost God,— forget it and deny it as at times they 
may, — yet, ever and anon, do feel (they must feel) that, by 
reason of that loss, they are not happy. Nothing will fill 
the infinite capacities of the soul of man. but the great 
Being from whom he has departed. You may try to fill 
that soul with meaner and baser substitutes. You may 
lure it away from the heavenly fold by tempting it with 
the world's choicest pastures, the golden meadows of riches, 
and the pleasures of sin,* It will tell you by a half-stifled 
bleat' of fretful, restless disquiet, that it is not, and cannot be 
happy. And why? just because it has lost its true fold, 
its true home — in the friendship and love of God, 

We always pity those who have seen '-'letter days; 7 ' 
who have been reduced from opulence to chill penury: 
or, who, from an ample competency and cheerful board, 
have now to sing their way in rags and wretchedness 
from door to door in the open street, in order to pro- 
cure a pittance for themselves and the hungry orphans 
at their side. We pity the prodigal who had once enjoyed 
his father's house and hall, now seated at his humiliating 
fare with the swine of the far country. We pity the bird of 
the forest that was wont to be singing up to heaven's gate, 
now Iviug stranding with broken wing in the furrow. 



14 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

There is a feeling akin to pity, even in regard to mute 
inanimate things, which have seen " better times/' The 
old ancestral keep or castle, where, in the days of chivalry, 
kings and nobles once held feast and tournament, and 
within whose tapestried walls minstrels sang ; now a de- 
serted ruin where the winds howl at will through silent 
chambers and broken battlements and blackened hearths ; 
— its only tenant the crawling reptile — its only tapestry, 
festoons of dank and tangled ivy. 

So it is with the sinner. We pity him. Made at first 
after the image of G od, he has truly seen better days. His 
soul, like the glittering patch gleaming^under the rags, 
bears testimony of former dignity and greatness. We 
pity him; for he too, like that wounded bird, once 
mounted on soaring pinions. We pity him; for he too, 
like that ruined castle, has his niches and loopholes and 
tapestried fragments, peering through the matted weeds 
and ivy, which still vindicate the grandeur of his original. 
We pity him ; for he too, like that ruined sheep, was once 
folded in the Divine pastures. That shattered frame, that 
torn fleece, are not what once they were, when feeding on 
the Delectable Mountains, reposing under the Shepherd's 
love. Do anj^ whose eye traces these pages feel that they 
are still astray ; — that they are still far from God, — that 
they have no happiness where they are, and can have 
none in this state of guilty alienation ? Oh, better to feel 
this, than to settle down, in callous contentment, on these 
distant pastures, without God and without hope, rmd 
finally to perish there ! Better surely to feel your danger 
and take timeous means to avert it, than to be like the 



THE FLOCK ASTRAY. 15 

ill-fated voyagers approaching all unaware and unwarned 
the fatal reef, in the midst of music and dancing. One , 
other moment the crash, and then the wild cry — " We are 
lost!" 

Go, return to the forsaken Shepherd ! Eeturn to the 
fold; and remember, in doing so, you are, in the truest 
sense, "going Home" Home! what a gush of thought 
there is in that word to all of us ! What will the man, 
long exiled — reluctantly domiciled in the far country — not 
give to be at Home ! How often do home-memories and 
home-countenances flit before him ! How do time and 
distance only increase the longings once more to be back 
amid these cherished haunts ; — t(T be seated by the trees 
which boyhood climbed, and by the murmuring streams 
which sans; the first and sweetest music in his ear ! That 
is your home, to be folded in the love and in the heart of 
God. We have read somewhere, of the wild but touching 
raving of a maniac, which expressed itself ever in the one 
utterance — " I am going Home." A thousand questions 
might be asked, and a thousand expedients employed, to 
recall dethroned reason from its wild soliloquy. But in 
vain : — the one key-note of the ever-recurring doleful wail- 
ing was — "I am going Home." Ah, it is the indefinite 
inarticulate longing of wandering humanity. It was the 
cry of the self-abandoned prodigal " when he came to 
himself" — when he awoke from his madness, — " I am 
going Home " — " I will arise and go to my father" I 
repeat, you cannot be happy in your present state. You 
are like the troubled sea which cannot rest. These waves 
of old ocean are a type of your own restless disquietude, 



16 THE SHEPHERD AXD HIS FLOCK. 

seeking rest, but finding none. The ocean's dimpled 
bosom is ever "seeking rest." These waves that rise and 
sink, swelling and tossing themselves in a thousand tor- 
tuous forms, are only by nice and accurate physical laws 
trying to rock themselves into a calm. Emblem of the 
restless soul of man ! Its very heavings and agitations 
and fretful disquietude, what are these, but just its own 
giant efforts to rock itself to repose on an Infinite Sod ! 
Remember, moreover, what aggravates the miilt and 

' DO O 

folly of your present departure and dispeace, is the fact 
that you are yourself alone responsible for " going astray." 
You were not driven from the fold — you wandered from 
it. It was an act of self-exile, self-banishment. That 
is one of the most touching scenes of Old Testament 
story, when, in presence of assembled Israel, on a day 
of high festival, the scape-goat went forth from the camp, 
"led by the -hand of a fit man into the wilderness." 
We can follow in thought the forlorn animal, wandering, 
with panting sides and bleating cry through the sandy 
.waste, until it reached the still more desolate shores of the 
Dead Sea. There it stands, with hot eyeballs and blis- 
tered feet: hazard with hunger and travel; faint with 
thirst ; mocked with the waters of the briny lake, which 
is unsheltered by shrub or rock ; the furnace-glow of the 
sands drying up the juices of its body — the hidden springs 
of life. That famished creature excites our pity. It was 
no voluntary exile — no spontaneous desertion of the flocks 
of its companions which brought it there. It was tl trust 
out — it was led resisting from the camp. While, there- 
fore, typical of a reality more solemn and significant still. 



THE FLOCK ASTRAY. 17 

the scape-goat is not the type of the lost sinner. We 
must seek for this rather in some wandering sheep, which, 
in stupid forgetfulness and wayward folly, has forsaken 
its pastures — disowned its Shepherd — and rushed on 
madly and wildly to ruin and death. The Shepherd is 
not responsible for your present distance and alienation. 
He savs now regarding each individual truant wanderer, 
as He said of old, from the brow of Mount Olivet, through 
His tears, regarding a nation of such, — Ci How often would 
I have gathered you, and ye would not." 

But — (although in this we are anticipating the theme 
of subsequent chapters) — blessed be His name, His mis- 
sion also was to proclaim, not through His tears but 
His blood, salvation to the perishing. In the case of the 
scape-goat of old, there was no possibility of return. It 
was consigned to a hopeless banishment — a lonely death ; 
the bones of the outcast were left to bleach on the desert 
sands, — its carcase to be food for the fowls of heaven. 
But, in the case of the most abject and hapless spiritual 
wanderer, there is hope — ay, to all who will — there is 
the glorious certainty of return and restoration. The last 
clause of our motto-verse unfolds to us the wondrous 
expedient of mingled love and wisdom. The scape-goat 
stands forth the awful type of the true Substitute. All 
the sins of the guilty flock are laid upon Him ; — and by 
Him are borne away for ever into a land of oblivion. 
" The Lord hath laid upon Him " (on the head of a Surety- 
Saviour) "the iniquities of us all." Go ! confess over Hm 
"all your iniquities in all your sins." Hang up, in the 
gallery of your hearts, the picture of the Scape-goat, bear- 



18 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

ing the Invisible imputed load into the region of forgetful- 
ness; and inscribe under it the New Testament writing 
and interpretation — (it is a glorious warrant — a gospel 
contained in a single sentence) — " He hath made him to 

BE SIN FOR US WHO KNEW NO SIN, THAT WE MIGHT BE MADE 
THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM." 



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" FOR THUS SAITH THE LORD GOD : BEHOLD, I, EYEN I, WILL BOTH SEARCH 
MY SHEEP, AND SEEK THEM OUT." — EZEK. XXXIV. 11. 
"WHAT MAN OF YOU, HAYING AN HUNDRED SHEEP, IF BE LOSE ONE OF THEM, 
DOTH NOT LEAYE THE NINETY AND NINE IN THE WILDERNESS, AND GO 
AFTER THAT WHICH IS LOST, UNTIL HE FIND IT."— LUKE XY. 4. 



THE FLOCK SOUGHT AND FOUND. 

Is the Great Shepherd to leave the stray sheep to wander 
and perish ? or is He to pity and reclaim them ? Glory 
can accrue to Him in either way. t It is for Him, in the 
plenitude of His own sovereignty and omnipotence, to 
decide the alternative. 

In the Crimean war of bygone years, there were two 
ways, very different from each other, in which heroic deed 
manifested itself. The one was, by our soldiers' indomit- 
able courage in the field, — when brave men stood manfully 
to their guns, and poured the iron hail against fearful odds; 
— when a thin gossamer line, as if it had been a rampart 
of brass, broke a murderous charge, and turned the for- 
tunes of the day; — when, oft and again, the apparently re- 
treating wave, gathering up its strength — rallying its fretted 
thunder — swept with awful retribution over the ranks of 
the enemy, leaving the trophies of its might still and silent 
on the plain ! That was the one way ; the stern glory of 
carnage and destruction. 

The other unfolds a picture in strange and startling con- 
trast with this. At midnight, in stifled hospital wards, 
amid the light of dim lamps and moans of sufferers, a gen- 
tle Form of pity flitted from couch to couch, with words 
and looks and deeds of mercy ; — pale lips kissing the sha- 
dow on their pillows as it passed. Both, I repeat, were 



22 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

heroic scenes and deeds. On which of the two does the 
mind love most to dwell ? On that field of stern desperate 
valour; or on these hushed corridors, away from the roar 
of battle, with the one hero-heart moving like a minister- 
ing angel amid the congregated crowd of wounded and 
dying ? 

God's way regarding man, (with reverence we say it,) was 
the latter. He could, indeed, have glorified Himself, in 
the vindication of the awful righteousness of His nature 
and of His law, by the destruction of the world; — by leaving 
the sheep of this distant fold to wander across the desolate 
mountains, and perish amid the precipices of ruin. But 
" the Son of man came not to destroy men's lives, but to 
save them." We may imagine the two alternatives presenting 
themselves before the Divine mind. The " ministration of 
condemnation ; " — by the battle of the warrior, with con- 
fused noise, and garments rolled in blood, to convert earth 
into a fearful aceldama to the praise of the glory of His 
justice. Or by a wondrous scheme of love and wisdom 
and pity, to turn it into one vast Hospital, with the in- 
scription on its walls, " i" am the Lord that healeth thee' — 
a Magnificent Temple to the praise of the glory of His 
GRACE. Condemn or not condemn; destroy or not destroy; 
leave the sheep to perish, or reclaim the wanderer. Leave 
the revolted orb to travel on in its erratic course, amid 
the infinite of darkness, or bring it back within the 
sphere of the divine regards. The resolve is made and 
proclaimed, " God sent not His Son into the world to 
condemn the world, but that the world, through Him, 
might be saved." 



THE FLOCK SOUGHT AND FOUND. 23 

Let this be our present theme of meditation; that the 
whole glory of the restoration of the lost sheep belongs to 
the Shepherd. The whole glory of the sinner's salvation 
belongs to God. 

We may look to this truth, first, in its simplest aspect. 

The soul, as we have already noted, is ever and anon ma- 
nifesting some undefined longing after its lost portion in God. 
But it has in itself a hopeless moral inability to return. 
It cannot retrace its lost way. Alas ! often there is rather 
the plunging deeper and deeper amid the pathless wilds of 
ruin; till, in addition to inability, there is added disinclina- 
tion to be restored to the long-lost fold. How often does the 
sinner become so habituated to these dark mountains of his 
wandering, as to spurn all thought of return. How sad it is to 
note the case of the old worldling, who has gone the round 
of guilty indulgence, who *has drunk from every brimming 
bowl and chalice of earthly happiness, You would expect 
the dulled appetite and sated eye willingly to turn to a 
nobler portion; like the flower long drooping under cloudy, 
weeping skies, lifting its head lovingly to the inviting gleam 
of heaven's sunshine. But how often is it the reverse ! 
Anything rather than return to God. The empty cha- 
lice must be refilled by some new honeyed earthly potion. 
The prodigal, rather than dream of restoration to the 
lost home, must have some new artificial means of stay- 
ing the rage of hunger, now that the swine's husks are 
turned from with aversion. The sheep, rather than return 
to the Shepherd, will go roaming in search of other pas- 
tures — increasing its mournful distance from the fold, and 
bringing it only into more perilous vicinity to the lions' 



24 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

dens and the mountains of the leopards. Alas ! experi- 
ence thus only too faithfully confirms and endorses the 
Bible's revealed doctrine of human depravity. Deny it as 
man may, and refine on the Scriptures as they may, this 
lies at the foundation of the sinner's wandering, that he 
dislikes his Shepherd. He does not "like to retain God in 
his knowledge." It is the would-be creed of his corrupt 
heart, (though conscience refutes the heterodoxy, — protests 
against the lying utterance,) " there is no God." He lives 
as if there were none. "Ye have forsaken me, the foun- 
tain of living waters/' 

How, then, can the sinner be reclaimed ? It is manifest 
that by no self-originated effort can he return. If saved, 
it must be by another. Himself he CANNOT, — himself 
he will not save. No sheep can effect its own restora- 
tion. You may listen to its bleating cry — the utterance of 
misery and felt dissatisfaction with strange pastures. But 
back one step of itself it cannot go. It is as helpless as the 
ship lying aslant, with shivered keel and gaping planks, on 
the bare rocks. You may patch up these started timbers, — 
you may replace these broken masts, — but nothing, save 
the lordly ocean sending in his tidal waves, can lift it from 
its place, and set it once more a living moving thing on 
the waters. It is easy enough to wreck that noble vessel. 
A drunken pilot — a deranged compass — a sunken reef — a 
sudden storm, may each do so ; but not so easy to refit 
and restore it. It is easy to drive the sheep away from 
the fold. A base companion — a master lust — indulgence 
in one guilty passion — some sudden gust of temptation, 



THE FLOCK SOUGHT AND FOUND. 25 

may account for a lifetime of -wandering; but Omnipo- 
tence alone can bring it back. It is easy enough to take 
the tiara of priceless diamonds, or the necklace of gold, 
and plunge it down in mid ocean ; but it is not so easy 
to descend through that untraversed barrier — that liquid 
rampart — which rolls defiant between, and get them up 
again. The soul, the true casket of lost treasures, by rea- 
son of its own sad principle of moral gravitation, sinks 
easily downward. But it is He alone who "taketh up the 
waters in the hollow of His hand"— that can rescue it from 
the depths of ruin and despair. 

Here, then, is the gospel's glorious history of the restora- 
tion of the "Wanderer; — "God, who is rich in mercy, for His 
great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead 
in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ ; by grace 
are ye saved." ''Behold I, even I, will both search my sheep 
and seek them out/' It is not Angels, They may after- 
wards be employed subordinately as ministering spirits, 
encamping round about the lost one, and bearing him up 
in all his ways, — " sent forth to minister to them who 
are heirs of salvation." But it is the almighty Shepherd 
Himself who has the whole glory of the seeking and find- 
ing. The words of St Peter, when he says, " Ye were as 
sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the Shepherd 
and Bishop of your souls," are generally misinterpreted. 
The " return" here spoken of is not used in an active, but 
passive sense ; the return is not the self-originated volun- 
tary return of the wanderer; but it is brought back, or re- 
turned, it knows not how, to the fold of the Good Shep- 



26 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

herd. " Not unto us, God, not unto us, but unto thy 
name we would give glory, for thy mercy and for thy 
truth's sake!" 

Marvellous condescension — unspeakable grace ! He 
speaks in one of the verses which precede this chapter, 
as if it were something wondrous, — something wellnigh 
incredible : " Behold J, even I" The spot is still pointed 
out with pride, amid the rocky wilds of Dauphine, where 
an eagle bore in its talons the infant which had been left 
smiling in fearless innocence in its cradle by the cottage 
door. One stalwart form after another tried to climb 
that giddy height for the rescue, but had to abandon it 
in despair. At last, a fleet and nimble foot spurns all 
difficulties. Up she climbs, from crag to crag, until, 
reaching the dizzy eminence, she buries the yet living 
child in her bosom, saying, as a mother's tongue' in such 
an hour alone could say, " This my child was dead, and 
is alive again — was lost, and is found!" But that was 
a mothers speechless affection for her offspring. As 
she brought her " loved and lost" back to her cottage 
home, and replaced it in the emptied cradle, w r e would 
think it strange to hear her saying, "Behold I, even I, 
have done this." Who could have done it but she ? We 
could imagine a father's love for a prodigal boy taking 
him over half the w T orld in the endeavour to seek and find 
him out. He would forget all the prodigality and sin, in 
the memories of hallowed "childhood;" when his little one 
climbed on his knee, or plucked flowers with him in the 
mead, or walked by his side, and with playful prattle 
wiled away hours of care and sorrow ! We can picture 



THE FLOCK SOUGHT AND FOUND. 27 

the soldier's wife out in the starry night and the pale 
moonshine, gazing wistfully amid the heaps of unburied 
slain, searching for the silent heart that can respond to her 
love no more. We can understand many a kind footstep 
going amid homes of wretchedness on errands of pity and 
love, — entering the beggar's hovel, or penetrating the alley 
where filth and crime hold perpetual sway. "We can un- 
derstand how such experience a luxury in doing good; — 
in lifting up these miserable outcasts from their dens and 
lives of misery and guilt ; recognising under these piteous 
rags the claim of degraded brotherhood; ay, hearts which, 
under genial influences, would have been as warm, or 
warmer than their own ! 

But what does the Infinite Jehovah see in us ? — What 
claim have these sheep on this Shepherd of the universe — 
these sinners on their ftod ? — None ! The natural heart 
is a den of pollution, a haunt of evil, the nurturing home 
of rebellion. "I have not rejected thee" he seems to say 
"but thou hast rejected Me!" I might have ratified your 
guilty apostasy. I might have left you to perish. I 
might have stamped eternity on your wanderings from the 
fold. This would have been the case at any human tri- 
bunal; in the dealings of man with his fellow-man. "But 
my ways are not as your ways, nor my thoughts as your 
thoughts/' " Behold I, even I, both search my sheep and 
seek them out." 

Not only, however, are we called to note and admire God's 
grace and condescension; but to admire the sovereignty 
of that grace as shown in the selection of its objects. 



28 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

Mankind were not the only fallen family in the universe. 
Other sheep, not of the earthly fold, had also strayed from 
the Shepherd. Might we not have expected, that in re- 
solving on the ransom and recovery of any lost ones, He 
would have made choice rather of a different race of wan- 
derers ! Fallen angels, (the aborigines of Heaven), were 
greater than man. They were swift of wing in fulfilling 
the divine behests ; and the very nobility of their natures, 
which made them glorious in their state of holiness and 
purity, would make them in proportion, formidable, when 
they became demons in depravity. For both these reasons, 
— the excelling in strength, whether for good or for evil, 
would, (we might have supposed on human calculations), 
have made the angelic nature rather than the human, — the 
lost sheep of heaven, rather than the lost sheep of earth, — 
the object of the divine restitution. Well may we pause 
and ponder this wondrous manifestation of sovereign grace 
in the salvation of sinners of the dust ! Well may we 
love to gaze on that picture which the Great Shepherd 
Himself, in His own parable, holds up to view—" leaving 
the ninety and nine in the wilderness/' (leaving apostate 
angels and fallen devils to perish), and Himself " going after 
that which was lost," in this remote corner of His creation. 
Not the sheep seeking the Shepherd ; but the Shep- 
herd seeking the sheep. Not the dove, with weary wing 
and wailing cry, traversing the wilderness of waters seek- 
ing the Ark ; but the Ark in search of the dove. Not the 
mendicant coming to your door hanging in rags, with cheeks 
gaunt with hunger, and shivering in the wintry blast; but 
the King going and seeking out the mendicant's dwelling, 



THE FLOCK SOUGHT AND FOUND. 29 

and putting sunshine and joy into his abode of misery. 
Truly, indeed, this salvation of man is a Story of grace. 
Turn the moral kaleidoscope as we may, the gleaming 
words still stand radiant before our eyes, " By the grace 
of God we are what we are/' God needed no sheep, no sin- 
ners, no angels, no universes to add to His glory. Kings 
of the earth have to add kingdom to kingdom ; they have 
to give rein to the lust of conquest and aggression to gain 
themselves renown. The glory of the old Eoman conquerors, 
as, charioted in triumph, they rode up, laurel- wreathed to 
the capitol, was measured by the uncrowned potentates who 
walked in chains by their chariot-wheels, or dragged the 
car of victory up the steeps. But if we can compare the 
shadowy greatness of earth with that of Him by whom 
kings reign; who "maketk the clouds His chariot, and who 
walketh upon the wings of the wind;" worlds on worlds — 
myriads of blazing stars and systems— could not add one 
ray to His underived glory. And were these worlds anni- 
hilated — blotted out from the map of creation ; were these 
stars of night swept away into nonentity; by Him the 
blank would be unfelt. He would be once more Alone. 
Glorious in the unpeopled solitudes of immensity; in- 
finitely happy in His own underived happiness. 

Once more. God's grace and compassion are further 
manifested in His untiring love and patience in the pur- 
suit of the lost, till restoration and safety be insured. 

In other words, we have to admire, not only His free 
grace and His sovereign grace, but what the old writers 
call His irresistible grace. "Thus saith the Lord God, 



30 THE SHEPHEED AND HIS FLOCK. 

Behold I, even I, will both search my sheep and seek them 
out" He will not only search for them, but He will 
search till He discover them. Or, as this is more beau- 
tifully expressed by the lips of the Great Shepherd 
Himself in His parable: — "He goetli after that which 
was lost until He find it." Until ! There is a world 
of pathos and meaning in that word. It gives us a 
wondrous glimpse of the Saviour's love, and forms the 
turning-point in the touching story. Until ! Its very 
indefiniteness as to time and toil are expressive. It may 
be days, weeks, months, years, He has been in unwearied 
pursuit after the wanderer. It may describe a sad history 
of scornful rejection, stubborn waywardness, persistent 
ingratitude. The parable pictures to us the Oriental 
shepherd climbing over jagged precipices, toiling in 
the burning sun over unsheltered wilds, or braving the 
perils of pathless forests; — the wayward sheep rushing 
on, plunging deeper and deeper into destruction, and 
lengthening the weary distance he has to carry it back to 
the fold. When a shepherd in our own country discovers 
that a member of his flock is missing, how does he gene- 
rally reclaim the wanderer ? ^He sends his dogs in 
pursuit of it. You may watch their track as they 
bound along the mountains-side or up the craggy steep. 
By and by the panting fugitiye, driven before them, 
enters, trembling, fleece-torn, and weary, the fold from 
which it had strayed. Not so, however, the Palestine 
shepherd. He would leave the restoring of his lost one 
not even to a hireling or servant. He cannot rest till 
the truant be clasped in his own arms. He grudges not 



THE FLOCK SOUGHT AND FOUND. 31 

the labour of a long journey. On he pursues his often 
arduous task, and he continues to pursue " until he 
find it!" Touching emblem and parable of the Good 
Shepherd, and of His persevering love and compassion ! Had 
it been any other than He; — had it been, not God, but man, 
— the pursuit would, long ago, have been abandoned in de- 
spair; seeing that, heedless of all entreaties, the sheep 
seemed to love its own death, and, regardless of the* Shep- 
herd's voice, rushed onwards to destruction. V But, un- 
moved by all its indifference ; with an importunity that 
never wearies, and a love that never grows cold, He still 
pursues. The forgetfulness and ingratitude of the wan- 
derer only seem to quicken His desire to have it folded 
in His arms. It does not say how long His importunity 
is to last. The Saviour's love is bounded by no distance, 
is cooled by no difficulties, is repulsed by no obstacles. 
Many an earthly shepherd goes after his sheep, but he has 
missed its track ; or, if not, he discovers, alas ! as he 
gazes on the bones which strew the mouth of the den, 
that a fleeter foot than his has found the prize. Not so 
the Heavenly Shepherd. He not only searches, but " seeks 
them out." He goeth after "until He finds." 

One of the noblest records of true heroism in Eng- 
land's annals is of comparatively recent date; when 
a gallant vessel, manned with gallant hearts, went forth 
amid the frowning icebergs of the Northern Seas, to search 
for a band of missing explorers. They sailed thither, 
buoyed with the faint, feeble hope, that the object of their 
search might still be found, battling bravely w 7 ith eternal 
winter. Alas ! they went after the lost " until they found 



32 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

tliem ; " but they found them with the stiffened snow and 
ice as their winding-sheet ! They brought not back the 
living, but only some sad mementoes and memorials of 
the dead. JSTot so is the journey, not so the pursuit, of the 
Great Shepherd of the sheep. His omniscient eye follows 
every wanderer. Those whom He has marked for His 
own, He will, without fail, bring home. Not one can elude 
His pursuit, nor evade His loving scrutiny. 

Cannot many a wandering sheep rehearse, through tears, 
all this, as a personal story ; how God tracked their foot- 
steps through the bleak moor of their wandering, repelled 
by no obduracy, chilled by no ingratitude. Think of these 
journeys after lost sinners, embracing a period of 6000 
years ! What an aggregate of human ingratitude ! What 
a gigantic record of divine patience and mercy ! Oh, if 
all these journeys of Shepherd-love could be told ! If a 
volume were to be written with this title — " Until He 
found them/' I suppose that all the world could not con- 
tain the books that should be written. 



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"and when he hath found it, he lateth it on his shoulders, rejoic- 
ing. AND WHEN HE COMETH HOME, HE CALLETH TOGETHER HIS FRIENDS 
AND NEIGHBOURS, SATING UNTO THEM, REJOICE WITH ME; FOR I HAVE 
FOUND MY SHEEP WHICH WAS LOST. I SAT UNTO TOU, THAT LIKEWISE 
JOT SHALL BE IN HEAVEN OVER ONE SINNER THAT REPENTETH, MORE 
THAN OVER NINETY AND NINE JUST PERSONS, WHICH NEED NO REPENT- 
ANCE." — LUKE XV. 5-7. 

U FOR TE WERE AS SHEEP GOING ASTRAY ; BUT ARE NOW RETURNED UNTO THE 
SHEPHERD AND BISHOP OF YOUR SOULS.'' — 1 PET. II. 25. 



THE FLOCK FOUND, AND ITS RETURN TO THE 

FOLD. 

In the previous chaptei, we spoke of God's grace mani- 
fested in diverse ways in the seeking of the lost ; His un- 
wearied patience in tracking the erring footsteps of the 
wanderers ; not content with seeking for them, but search- 
ing " until He find them." 

In what strange unwonted places and resorts the Shep- 
herd of Israel often finds the members of His flock ! As 
the traveller witnesses, at times, the blue gentian peeping 
up through the snow-wreaths in the heights of Alpine 
passes, — a child of summer where winter wears his icy 
diadem ; or, as the antiquary at times discovers some rare 
bit of carving, or tracery, nestling amid the wreck and 
debris which encircle the old ivy-clad loop-holed ruin ; — 
so are God's sheep discovered often where we should have 
least expected them. 

Witness Manasseh, tnat stray wanderer on the hills 
of Judah. See how God searched him out "amid the 
thorns," where, we read, he first took refuge ; and then in 
the dungeon vault of Babylon. See how He followed afte A 
him, "until He found him;" and the long-lost, but finally 
captured wanderer, leapt into the Shepherd's arms. 

Look at Paul of Tarsus, the leader of a devious flock ; 
not content to stray himself, but seducing others to follow. 



36 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

See how the Shepherd pursues him over the stony wilds 
of unbelief, self-righteousness, bigotry, and guilt; crying, 
'Saul, Saul, why perseeutest thou me ? It is hard for 
thee to kick against the pricks. Why longer resist the 
grace that has marked thee as its own?' The chief of 
erring w r anderers responded to the call of shepherd-love. 
With bleating cry, he too rushed panting and trembling 
to the feet and the fold he never deserted ag;ain. 

Look at Zaccheus hiding amid the thick branches of the 
sycamore, until the Saviour passed by. He was the one 
of all the Jericho flock least likely to be reclaimed. But 
the Shepherd's eye penetrated his place of concealment. 
He cried, ' Zaccheus ! come down ! To-day, lost wan- 
derer, thou art to abide in my fold.' 

Look at the woman from the city ! " Simon, seest thou 
this woman ? " f Seest thou this sheep, the brand of infamy 
on her brow, the stain of lost purity on her fleece?' If 
others scorn her bleating cries, the Divine Shepherd, who 
"gave His life" for her, does not. 

Look at the dying thief. It was a sheep in the fangs 
of the wolf; death was already dimming his eye. It was 
the unlikeliest time to be saved. But the Shepherd 
rushes to the rescue, saying — " I have called thee by thy 
name, thou art mine." That day he was with Jesus in 
the fold of Paradise ! 

And how many, doubtless, can tell the same tale of 
wxmdrous patience, forbearance, and love ; — that they are 
miracles of grace; — their history this — "The chief of sin- 
ners, but I obtained mercy ! " How many and diverse, 
too, have been God's method of reclaiming 1 • He has fol- 



THE FLOCK FOUND, AND ITS BETURN TO THE FOLD. 37 

lowed some with worldly calamity. He spoke to you — 
He " searched you out/ 1 — by sickness, — by making .gaps 
in your household — by sudden and severe bereavements. 
You would not listen otherwise to your Shepherd's voice. 
He had tried you by gentler means ;— by tender compas- 
sion — unruffled prosperity — abounding mercies. But you 
spurned His calls; and He had to bring you back'' by 
terrible things in righteousness 1 " Ah ! if we but knew 
it, how often are these desolating afflictions only the 
louder tones of the Shepherd's voice — the wise and need- 
ful constraint of the Shepherd's love ? We have heard of 
the earthly shepherd who failed to induce the sheep to enter 
the door of the fold. It eluded all his attempts : it persisted 
in remaining on the outside pastures. After having ex- 
hausted every other expedient, his last resort was success- 
ful. He took its bleating lamb, and carried it in his arms 
inside the fold. The mother no longer resisted; obey- 
ing the instincts of nature, she fallowed her offspring. 
The Shepherd attained His object, and the wicket-gate 
closed them in against the storms of night. Hoav often 
does the Great Shepherd take a tender lamb from a parent's 
side — a loved child, — set it inside the gate of the heavenly 
fold, that He may tempt and constrain the other to follow 
after it ! 

But to pursue the more special subject of this chapter. 
We adverted, in the former, to the Shepherd's going after 
the sheep until he found it. Let us now attend to His deal- 
ing with it on finding it, and its restoration to the fold. 
"Whenhe hath found itjie layetli it on his shoulders rejoicing:' 



38 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

If we spoke of His patient, untiring perseverance as 
wondrous; there is something surely equally touching and 
beautiful in this next delineation in the Divine picture. 
If it had been the kindest and tenderest earthly father, 
meeting his wayward disobedient child, we could not have 
been surprised had the story depicted him with a frown 
on his countenance, displeasure in his eye, the rod of 
chastisement in his hand. He scarce could conceal or 
disguise how keenly he felt the filial ingratitude. Kings 
and despots of the earth, in bestowing their favours and 
pardons, have done so, too frequently, with every mark of 
humiliation and disgrace. Edward the Third of England 
dispensed pardon at the gates of Calais, but it was when 
the crouching citizens came with halters round their 
necks — the degrading badges of servitude ; and even this 
act of clemency was extorted by the intercession of his 
queen. Another sent his pardoned enemy home, — but it 
was with rayless eyes — emptied sockets, the perpetual 
memorials of ignominious defeat. How different the ways 
of God ; — the dealings of the Great Shepherd of souls to- 
wards the reclaimed wanderer from His fold ! The his- 
tory of these wanderers may have been sad indeed. A 
history of neglect, rebellion, waywardness. "We may 
expect when the Shepherd overtakes, to hear nothing but 
words of upbraiding ; harsh tones of deserved and merited 
rebuke. But no ! the Lord upbraideth not. If we were 
to select the most tenderly affecting part of the New Tes- 
tament parable, it would be, when, in silent love, He lays 
the lost sheep on His shoulders rejoicing. The past — 
with all its forgetfulness, and disobedience, and ingrati- 



THE FLOCK FOUND, AND ITS RETURN TO THE FOLD. 39 

tnde, seems to be obliterated. The Shepherd is so im- 
mersed in His own joy in the rescue, that He has no 
leisure to think of its waywardness.' Days, and weeks, 
and years may have been spent in weary pursuit after the 
erring sinner, but all the distance, and fatigue, and diffi- 
culties of the journey seem forgotten in the moment of 
ecstasy, when the wanderer is clasped in His arms, and 
when the Shepherd rejoicing, exclaims, " This my sheep 
was dead, and is alive again ; it was lost and is found/' 

Mysterious, wondrous silence ! What ! will He say 
nothing about grace despised, privileges abused, conscience 
resisted, mercy scorned ? Will He say nothing about those 
dark memories of sin, that have been ever haunting some, 
like fearful spectres, driving them onwards and onwards to 
the black rocks, the hideous precipices of despair ? No ! we 
listen in vain for words of * harshness ; we look in vain for 
strokes of chastisement. There are none. When He 
grasps the forlorn, panting fugitive, it is to take it up in 
His arms. When He does break silence — it is to exclaim, 
" Eejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was 
lost!" 

Let us look at Christ's recorded dealings with some of 
these. Nor can we do better than take for illustration the 
very cases to which we have already referred. Let us 
see, when He finds those sheep, what He says — what He 
does ; — for as He dealt with them, so is He willing to 
deal with every lost one still. 

Is it the woman in the Pharisee's house ? Who more 
utterly lost than she ? Scorned and hooted by those in 
whose company she then w x as : like the maimed or dis- 



40 THE SHEPHEED AND HIS FLOCK. 

eased member of the flock we may have seen on our own 
mountain-sides — persecuted by the others — thrust aside 
from their pastures, and set upon with cruelty if daring 
to venture within reach. She had listened, doubtless, 
somewhere, to the true Shepherd's voice, He who " calleth 
His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out !" She had 
heard His gentle sayings. She had probably heard Him 
drop those gracious balm-words of comfort — (Oh, to one 
whose bleating cry was ever this, " I have gone astray like 
a lost sheep, " what could have been more soothing to 
these weary, wandering feet of sin and wretchedness,) 
"Come unto me, and I will give you rest!" She may 
have heard Him say, " I am the door, by me if any man 
enter in he shall be saved." Might she not enter ? Yes ! 
others may exclude her, — scornful brows may frown upon 
her, and bid her away. But she knows that a kinder Shep- 
herd and a better Fold than earth can give her wherein 
to rest her weary spirit, are at hand. She will throw her- 
self at the wicket-gate, and let her tears plead her suit. 
The Shepherd sees her; and what says He? Does He 
dwell upon her flagrant life : — does He mock her an- 
guish by bitter upbraidings ? ]STo ! with all her foul black 
stains, He yet lifts her from the dust, throws open the 
gates of His fold, and tells her to go in and out and find 
pasture ! 

Is it Zaccheus ? He too was a guilty, aggravated wanderer; 
his character blackened with extortion and fraud. But the 
Shepherd calls him to His presence. When the guilty pub- 
lican heard the name pronounced by that Infinitely Pure 
One, " Zaccheus !" the whole unworthy memories of a past 



THE FLOCK FOUND, AND ITS RETURN TO THE FOLD. 41 

life-time may at the moment have rushed before him. He 
may have expected to hear from these lips of burning holi- 
ness nothing but severe reproach and unmeasured invective. 
The detected lost one would perhaps gladly have plunged 
back into the bramble thicket, from which (prompted by 
curiosity) he had incautiously ventured. But he is also 
taken and laid on the Shepherd's shoulders rejoicing. Christ 
has not one angry word to utter. He speaks kindly to 
him. That poor indurated soul, unaccustomed to one look 
or word of complacency; scorned, — hateful and hated; — 
pointed at by his fellows, with the odious title, " The ex- 
tortioner of Jericho !" When he hears that gracious Healer 
saying, ' Zaccheus ! I am coming to be a dweller in thy 
house; — to share thy meal; — to tell thee of better pastures 
than thy hungry soul has ever fed upon :' he lifts his droop- 
ing head, as do the leaves of «the flower — to the gleam steal- 
ing through the grated dungeon. This trembling sheep 
leaps into the Shepherd's arms; and if the crowd around 
wonder, and raise the unkind taunt; if they whisper aloud 
the old history of his sins; the Eecleemer only lifts His eyes 
from a scorning earth to a sympathising heaven, as he thus 
silently addresses the angel spectators, "Eejoice with Me, 
for I have found My sheep which was lost." 

Is it the Thief on the cross? a sheep bleating in the 
agonies of death! He sees his Shepherd bleeding by his 
side; — the Good Shepherd, giving that moment His own 
life for the sheep. When he cries, " Lord, remember me! 5 ' 
is the Shepherd's taunting reply — " Yes, I remember thee ; 
— I remember all thy guilty wanderings — thy cursings — 
thy murders — thy life-long villanies ;— perish in righteous 



42 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

retribution for thy crimes ? " No ! In that hour of mysteri- 
ous anguish, the dying Saviour lays the dying thief on His 
shoulders, and they enter together the golden wicket-gate 
of the fold of paradise ! 

Or shall we take, yet once more, a different example. 
Look at Peter. His, indeed, was but a temporary wandering 
from the pastures in which he had long reposed, and from the 
Shepherd he had long loved. Yet, in one sense, this very 
fact fearfully aggravated the crime of his ingratitude and 
desertion. But when the risen Saviour meets the trembling 
Apostate, what does He say ? Does He rehearse all the 
miseries of that wretched alienation, since the night he 
broke lose from the fold, when the Shepherd was smitten 
and the sheep scattered? Does He recall to him all his 
plighted, but sadly-broken vows of inviolable fidelity, on 
lake and mountain, and at quiet communion season ? Does 
He aggravate the pangs of his sorrowing spirit by recount- 
ing the oaths, and curses, and presumptuous falsehood in 
Pilate's judgment-hall? Does He upbraid him for his 
guilty coward-absence from the foot of the cross, when the 
bolder hearts of the Marys and the gentle spirit of John con- 
fronted that awful scene? Listen; "Simon son of Jonas ! 
LOVEST thou Me?" That broken bosom was not needlessly 
lacerated by speaking of sins too deeply felt to need being 
laid bare. The threefold denial draws forth no severer, 
no more cutting or wounding rebuke, than the threefold 
challenge of love ' Simon ' — as if He said, { I forget the 
past; — I bury it in oblivion. Come, stray sheep, into 
thy Shepherd's arms. Give the silent promise of faithful 
obedience for the future. Go back amid the flocks of thy 



THE FLOCK FOUXD, AND ITS RETURN TO THE FOLD. 43 

companions ; — teach them by word, and warning, and ex- 
ample, never to stray! When thou art "turned again" — 
" when thou art ' converted,' strengthen thy brethren." 
" Simon, son of Jonas ! lovest thou Me ? n " Feed My lambs 
—feed My sheep!" 3 

Oh, how tender, how winning is the Great Shepherd in all 
these and such-like dealings ! " The love of Christ constrain- 
eth us." Nothing but love will draw the sinner — melt the 
heart, and subdue its enmity. The goodness of God leadeth 
to repentance. Sinai — the mount of terror — gives forth 
its stern utterance, "Thou shalt follow the Shepherd:" it 
threatens its curses on those who fail to follow Him. Cal- 
vary gives forth its voice of love; and we love Him and 
follow Him because He first loved us. 

Can it be said of us, " Ye were as sheep going astray, but 
are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your 
souls?" If so, how happy our condition! How great the 
contrast between these hours of bitter alienation and wander- 
ing, and those attending this joyous restoration! It is the 
difference between the furious lava-stream, burning up 
and blighting everything before it, in its fiery career ; but 
whose surface, a few years hence, is carpeted with verdure, 
on which purple grapes pillow their ripe clusters. Astray 
from the fold, away from the Shepherd, you cannot be 
happy. Xo ! with death and immortality before you, you 
cannot be satisfied with the poor gilded joys of the present, 
if you have nothing over and above, (nothing better,) with 
which to fill the aching voids of vour soul. Too truthful 
and suggestive is the symbolic truth conveyed by a painter 
in an allegorical picture of the world ; — children in a church- 



44: THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

yard, sporting with soap-bubbles by the side of an opened 
grave! The bubbles are beauteous—lustrous with rainbow 
tints; but, one by one, they burst, some in the air, others 
as they touch the fringing grass ; the vapoury moisture of 
all, falling into that dark hollow at their feet. No, no ! the 
true repose of the heart is in God.^The true rest of the soul 
is in the clefts of the Rock ! To revert to the figure already 
employed, you cannot detain the eagle in the forest. You 
may gather around him a chorus of choicest birds ; — you 
may give him a perch on the goodliest pine; — you may 
charge winded messengers to bring him choicest dainties; — 
but he will spurn them all. Spreading his lordly wings, and, 
with his eye on the Alpine cliff, he will soar away to his 
own ancestral halls amid the munitions of rocks and the 
wild music of tempest and waterfall ! The soul of man, in 
its eagle soarings, will rest with nothing short of the Rock 
of Ages. Its ancestral halls are the halls of Heaven. Its 
munitions of rocks are the attributes of God. The sweep 
of its majestic flight is Eternity ! " Lord, thou hast been 
our dwelling-place in all generations ! " 

Nor let any unworthy doubts, any unbelieving surmises, 
be harboured as to the Shepherd's willingness to save. 
If we have been taught anything by the subject of this 
chapter, it surely is that blessed truth which is too often 
overlooked and disowned — " The Son of man is come to 
seek and to save that which is lost. ,, Mark, it is Himself 
in these words who speaks ! It is not man, Man has 
too often only a harsh verdict for the penitent. As was 
the case with the unfeeling guests in the house of the Pha- 
risee, the cruel whisper is often all that goes round when 



THE FLOCK FOUND, AND ITS RETURN TO THE FOLD. 45 

the trembling sheep is seen crouching at the Shepherd's 
feet. Too many deal with the outcast and fallen as the 
watchman in the Song dealt with the weeping bride — tear- 
ing off her veil and loading her with reproaches. But the 
Chief Shepherd is more tender and loving than His under- 
shepherds. He has no words but forgiveness — " Behold I, 
even 77" — I, Incarnate Purity. I, who on account of sin 
had to shed My life's blood, and therefore who hate it with 
a perfect hatred. Yet even I am ready to say to all who 
seek M y mercy — " Your sins, which are many, are forgiven 
you ! " Every such drooping, withered flower in His gar- 
den He tells to lift up its head. It reminds one of the 
decayed and decaying leaves of the rose, which the gar- 
dener would have cast among the rubbish, or left the 
autumn winds to strew on the ground ; but which loving 
hands gather in baskets, ithat they may be stored up for 
years in some treasured vessel to shed perfume through 
all the house ! 

Do not think of God in the light of a gloomy and unscrip- 
tural theology, as the Eomans thought of their Jupiter in 
the capitol, a wrathful Being, with the bolt in his hand, 
ever delighting to >aunch the thunder. Think of Him 
rather as the Seeker of the lost ; " not willing that any 
should perish;" calling sinners to His feet, — not, as we 
might have dreamt or expected, with the halter round 
their neck, the brand on their brow, and the chains dang- 
ling at their side, — but speaking to them as a Father — 
dealing with them as a Shepherd ; saying to them with the 
authority of a King — " As I live I have no pleasure in the 
death of him that dieth." Mock no longer the Shepherd's 



46 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

entreaties. His expostulations may even now be addressed 
to you. He may be pursuing you by the voice of His pro- 
vidence. He may be showing you, as you never saw it 
before, the desolateness of this wilderness, — the awful iso- 
lation of the spirit away from Himself ! He may be robb- 
ing you of your substance, or blighting your earthly hopes, 
— opening graves for your children, or putting an impressive 
mockery on the vain magnificence of a dead and dying 
world ; one or all of these may be the footsteps of the 
pursuing Shepherd. Do you never pause to think, that 
the farther you stray from His fold, you are increasing 
His toilsome journey, — adding to the travail of His soul, — 
vexing and saddening a loving Saviour's heart ? On the 
other hand, think of the joy which your restoration and 
return would cause to that Divine Shepherd ! Here 
is His own delineation of that joy — " When he cometh 
home he calleth his friends and neighbours together, say- 
ing, Eejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which 
was lost." Encouraging, sustaining thought to those who 
may be now returning back to the fold. You are thereby 
causing Jesus to rejoice ! The breakings of heart — the 
penitential sighings and tears of the closet— have a glo- 
rious counterpart in Heaven. For every sinner that stands 
weeping at the Cross, there is a Saviour rejoicing on the 
throne. As He hurries back with you along the wilderness 
path, in the arms of His everlasting love, He says — (( I 
am glorified in them \" Nay, more, — His own beautiful 
parable tells us, that it is no common joy which greets the 
return of the wanderer. " Joy shall be in heaven over 
one sinner that repenteth, — more than over ninety and 



THE FLOCK FOUND, AND ITS RETURN TO THE FOLD. 47 

nine just persons who need no repentance.'' This would 
seem among other suggestive truths to announce to us, that 
the salvation of the sinner is the marvel of marvels — the 
prodigy of prodigies. The tears of the lowly penitent are 
matter of loftier rejoicing, than the songs and adorations 
and unfaltering obedience of those angels who have never 
swerved from their steadfastness. From the ninety and 
nine orbs tenanted by principalities and powers, there 
rolls not in to the throne of God a tide of glory so won- 
drous as that from a ransomed world. Hence we read, 
that when the heavenly inhabitants would find through- 
out the universe the noblest theme for their praises — the 
grandest and most august display of Jehovah's glory, — 
they look, not upward to the throne, but stoop downwards 
to the cross. This is the burden of their ascription : 
" The whole earth " (ndt Heaven) " is filled with His 
glory," — "Unto principalities and powers in heavenly 
places is made known by the Church, the manifold wis- 
dom of God." 

Finally, ye who are now reposing safely within the sacred 
enclosure, ever give God all the glory of your restoration. 
It was He who sought you out when your feet were 
stumbling on the dark mountains. It was by Him alone 
that you, lost one, were brought home. This may well 
be your ever-grateful testimony, — " Unless the Lord had 
been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence ; when 
my foot slipped, thy mercy, Lord, held me up." Blessed 
Saviour, to whom can I go but unto Thee ? The wander- 
ing sheep may turn scornfully from its restoring shepherd ; 
the eagle may cling to its ignoble cage and despise its 



48 THE SHEPHERD AXD HIS FLOCK. 

rocky fastnesses; the prodigal may mock a parent's ill- 
treaties, and recklessly cleave to his alien home and beg- 
gar's fare ; the parched pilgrim may turn with averted 
head from the gushing stream ; hut Thou, Restorer of this 
lost and ruined soul ! let me never be guilty of the foul 
ingratitude of forgetting Thee. " Great " (oh, how great !) 
" is Thy mercy toward me ; and Thou hast delivered my 
soul out of the lowest hell 1" 



(Llj£ Sljepljertr oi % Jfloxk Smitten. 



AWAKE, SWORD, AGAINST MY* SHEPHERD, AND AGAINST THE MAX THAT 
IS MY FELLOW, SAITH THE LORD OF HOSTS *. SMITE THE SHEPHERD." — 

zeoh. xni. 7. 



THE SHEPHEED OF THE FLOCK SMITTEN". 

In contemplating, in the preceding pages, the successive 
pictures of the Flock astray, and its return to the fold, we 
have been led casually to anticipate the great topic of the 
salvation purchased by the Shepherd for the guilty and 
the perishing. We shall make, however, themes of such 
peerless importance subject of more special and peculiar 
consideration in this and the following chapter, before 
passing to other Bible delineations regarding the Sheep. 

In the sublime figurative language of the prophet Zecha- 
riah, a mysterious summons is heard in the court of Heaven. 
The sword of Justice, which had slumbered in its sheath 
ever since the time when rebel angels had swerved from 
their allegiance, is again awoke. We listen in thought to 
the most awful words which ever broke the trance of 
Eternity, — " Awake, sword, against my Shepherd, and 
against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts; 
smite the Shepherd." 

The first thing which strikes us in this remarkable, 
this tremendous utterance is, that it is God the Eternal 
Father who gives the decree for the smiting of the Shep- 
herd. It is at the bidding of Jehovah that that awful 
sword leaps from its scabbard,—" Awake, sword, saith 
the Lord of hosts." 



52 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

Here, however, we must from the outset guard against 
aught that would tend to derogate from the character of 
God as a God of Love. We repeat the remark which we 
have already made, if there be any teaching which re- 
quires to be repudiated more than another, as alike re- 
pulsive and unscriptural, it is the unguarded language of 
those who speak of God much in the same way as they 
would speak of a heathen Moloch ; — a vindictive Being, — 
an avenging Deity, whose wrath can be appeased and pro- 
pitiated only by offerings of blood. The love of God is 
thus falsely represented as something ( bought,' extorted at 
the expense of another, the purchase-price being these 
untold sufferings of His co-eternal Son ! 

Ah, it would be a worthless thing that. Love is a thing 
that cannot be bribed. This noblest of emotions can never 
be degraded to the level of a marketable commodity — a 
piece of mercenary barter. Besides, God's love needed 
not thus to be purchased. That love was the primal 
cause of all blessing to His creatures. It existed before 
the birth of time. Ere ever angel pealed his anthem, or 
morning star sang responsive to a jubilant sisterhood of 
worlds ; it was that love which, in the Eternity that is 
past, first devised the amazing scheme of Bedemption, and 
through the Eternity to come, the ascription of the tri- 
umphant Church will be, " Thanks be unto God for His 
unspeakable gift." 

The manifestation, however, of Love on the part of a 
great Moral Governor, must be compatible with the exer- 
cise of His moral perfections. God's Justice, Holiness, 
Bighteousness must be upheld inviolate. While mercy 



THE SHEPHERD OF THE FLOCK SMITTEN. 53 

and truth go before His face, Justice and Judgment must 
continue the habitation of His throne. Under the specious 
seniblance of exalting the Divine Euler in the estimation 
of His loving and adoring creatures, it is easy to talk of 
His unlimited mercy, His boundless compassion; — that by 
a mere behest of omnipotence, a volition of His sovereignty, 
He could have pardoned a rebel world, and gathered back 
the lost sheep to the fold. 

Such declaimers, however, look only to the Being of God ; 
they do not think of His Character: Doubtless, as the Om- 
nipotent, He could do anything. He could, in the exercise of 
uncontrolled Almightiness, replace, this hour, Satan and his 
legion host on archangel thrones. So far as power is con- 
cerned, He could easily have dispensed with any medium 
of atonement, — forbade the awaking of that sword, the 
wearing of that crown of thorns, and reinstated the fallen 
simply by the proclamation of a universal amnesty. But 
what God, as the Omnipotent, could do, God, as the Holy, 
Eighteous, Just, True, could not do. He could not pro- 
mulgate laws, and leave the transgressor to mock them 
with impunity. He could not compromise His character ; 
— He could not stultify Himself; — He could not degrade 
His legislative enactments into a mere name and nullity. 
Had He done so, (rather could He have done so,) the pil- 
lars of His eternal throne would have tottered to their 
base. ' 

Was there, then, in the case of guilty man, any possible 
method, compatible with the exercise of His moral attri- 
butes, by which the honour of God's name and character 
and throne could be preserved intact, and yet the trans- 



54 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

gressor be saved ? Reason is silent here. Unassisted 
reason can shed no light on the great problem. Nay, 
rather, had Eeason been left to frame the reply, there 
could have been but one, — " No hope," — " A certain fear- 
ful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation." The 
principle of substitution — the innocent suffering for the 
guilty — is one undreamt of in earthly philosophy. It is 
enough for us to accept the glorious revealed truth, that 
the principle is one recognised and sanctioned in the 
Divine economy ; — that here, at least, is one way, and it is 
the only one, by which the God who has so solemnly 
averred that He " can by no means clear," can clear the 
guilty ; — ay, and who, moreover, in doing so, can pour the 
lustre of a high vindication around every perfection of His 
nature, and every requirement of His law. For awful as 
would have been the testimony to the Divine Holiness and 
Justice and Truth, if sinners had been shut up in the fold 
of destruction, and the cry had been heard, " Awake, 
sword against these sheep;" — not so awful an attestation 
would it have been, as when from His own lips proceeded 
the thrilling words, "Awake, sword, against my Shep- 
herd, and against the man that is my fellow ! " The Shep- 
herd has been smitten; — the Divine honour has been 
upholclen. Mercy and Truth have been betrothed before 
the altar of Calvary ; God hath joined them together for 
the salvation of the human race, and that marriage-cove- 
nant never can be disannulled. Justice is now equally 
interested with Love in the rescue of the fallen. God is 
the just God, and yet the Saviour. "Oh, righteous Father," 
exclaimed the Eedeemer in His valedictory prayer, " the 



THE SHEPHERD OF THE FLOCK SMITTEN. 55 

world hath not known Thee." c They do not understand 
the infinite depths of Thy love. But surely when that 
sword awakes, its gleam will flash the truth upon their 
souls. It will reveal what the intensity of that Love must 
have been glowing in Thy heart, which, rather than lose a 
race of wanderers, — a flock uiven over to slaughter- — made 
Thee willing to give Thine Eternal Son as a peerless ransom '. ? 
Yes; Ave may go farther, and boldly aver; if the Father's 
Love had not been infinite, Justice would ere now have 
been bidden sheathe her sword, — the bands would have 
been loosed from the head of the Divine Victim, — the 
Sinless One would have gone free, and guilty myriads 
been left to perish. But Love triumphs. The command 
is given, " Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the 
horns of the altar;" " Awake, sword, against my Shep- 
herd, and against the man that is my fellow ; smite the 
Shepherd!" 



GF 



t SJxepjxerfr 0xfjirt0 jfe i3fie for 



w I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD : THE GOOD SHEPHERD GIVETH HIS LIFE FOR 
THE SHEEP." — JOHN X. 11. 



THE SHEPHERD GIVING HIS LIFE FOE 
THE SHEEP. 

Will the Shepherd undertake the awful alternative ? Will 
the Man who is Jehovah's Fellow, His co-eternal Son, be 
willing to give His own life for ilie sheep, and accept the 
tremendous responsibilities implied in such a Suretyship ? 
Behold the fire and the wood, but what of the Lamb for 
a burnt-offering ? 

" Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall 
I send, and who will go for us?" 

At that interrogation, we can well imagine there would 
be silence in Heaven. Each eye would be directed to the 
sword still slumbering at the foot of the eternal throne, 
and then upwards to the One glorious Being wdio could 
alone undertake the mission, and pay the adequate ran- 
som. The question would pass from rank to rank, " Will 
He save others, or will He save Himself? Will He dele- 
gate some minister of wrath on the errand of retribution 
to the flock pent up in the fold, or will He Himself become 
the Redeemer of a doomed and dying world ? " 

They are not kept in suspense. The silence is broken 
by a voice from the excellent glory, " Behold, here am I, 
send Me!" The Shepherd, as we have seen, is repre- 
sented in the parable as leaving the ninety and nine, — ■ 
the glorious angelic beings who hymned His praises from 



58 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

all eternity, — and "going after that which was lost." 
There is something tenderly true to nature in this descrip- 
tion. The ninety and nine occupy, for the time, little of 
His thoughts in comparison with the one erring wanderer. 
Have you never observed how the mother's tenderest care 
and love are lavished on her little invalid ? The rest of the 
family, the hardier shrubs, are left to battle with the storm, 
but this nestles in her bosom, and engrosses all her sym- 
pathies. Or have you never heard her tell the touching 
story, as to how all her living treasures are nothing to the 
one that lies in yonder churchyard ? She will tell how 
wrong she feels it to be, with so many blessings still re- 
maining ; but yet, in spite of all, how her anguished heart 
will 2:0 after " that which is lost I" 

Jesus is like that parent. He loves the lost more than 
the ninety and nine. He seems for the moment- to forget 
all the fold in His pitying fondness for the wanderer. " He 
goetli after it." Dare we attempt to follow Him in His 
pilgrimage of incarnate love ? "What a journey was that, 
from the heights of glory to the depths of humiliation ! 
Think of the mountains of transgression He had to climb ! 
Think of the valleys of humiliation He had to descend ! 
Think, as He pursues, of the thorns which pierced His bleed 
ing feet ! Think of the ni°hts of darkness in which His 
unpillowed head was denied the rest of the lowliest of His 
creation ! Nothing would daunt Him in His divine heroic 
purpose. In this respect, how" different the Shepherd from 
His fickle, irresolute, feeble flock ! The utterance of one 
of the latter was this, "Lord, I will even lay down my life 
for Thy sake." Alas ! when the testing time came, how 



THE SHEPHERD GIVING HIS LIFE FOE THE SHEEP. 59 

the conduct of the renegade apostle belied the words so 
bravely (too bravely) spoken ! The Good Shepherd had 
made a similar utterance, " I lay down My life for the 
sheep." "But He fainteth not, neither is weary." "What 
as the God-man He spake, as the God-man He also per- 
formed. " He saved others, Himself He would not save." 
Oh ! there is no more elevating subject of contemplation 
than the joyful alacrity with which the Great Surety un- 
dertook this work, and longed for its completion. " Before 
the mountains were settled, before there were fountains 
abounding with water/ 3 the Shepherd-Redeemer seemed to 
take a h allowed delight in coming down to gaze on the fold, 
the half-formed world which was to become the scene of His 
redemption. Hear His own expressive words, " Sacrifice 
and offering" (the poor expiation which man could provide 
by the blood of slain victims) " thou clidst not desire. But 
a body hast thou prepared me. Lo ! I come!" — (at once 
the High Priest and Sacrifice, that I may offer the pre- 
pared body on the altar of my Divine nature ; — the altar 
which sanctifieth the gift) — " Lo ! I come. I delight to 
do thy will, my God 1" In another passage He is repre- 
sented, still as the Shepherd of His people, looking clown 
the vista of ages from these remote eras of a past eternity. 
He sees the sheep scattered far and wide on the desolate 
mountains. He sees death and the grave hunting them 

o o 

over the precipices of ruin; and He exclaims, as the bleat 
of the despairing flock reaches His ear, " I will ransom 
them from the power of the grave, I will redeem them 
from death. death, I will be thy plagues ! grave, I 
will be thy destruction!" As the crisis approaches for 



60 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

the fulfilment of His vast purpose, His desire to give His 
life for the sheep, and to fulfil His covenant engagement, 
seems to grow in vehement intensity. Moreover, while 
the bravest human spirits frequently start and recoil at the 
thought of death, see how this Great Victim loves often and 
again to dwell on His approaching sufferings and sacrifice. 
" I lay down My life," says He, "for the sheep." "Therefore 
doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that 
I may take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay 
it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I 
have power to take it again." In the scene of His trans- 
figuration-glory, it is the same wondrous theme which 
forms the topic of conversation between Himself and the 
heavenly visitants. They talked, not of His glory as God. 
They spake of Him, not as the Shepherd of the Universe, 
calling his worlds, like the sheep of His flock, "by name, 
by the greatness of His might ;" — but they spake of the 
Shepherd plunging into the torrent of wrath to effect their 
rescue ; — " They spake of His decease which He should 
accomplish at Jerusalem." As the hour drew still nearer, 
the same awful anticipation seems to fill more and more 
His loving eye and loving heart; as if He had room only 
for one thought and one sight, that of the flock of wan- 
derers being reclaimed and saved, by the pouring cut of His 
blood, — " I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how 
am I straitened until it be accomplished." In His last in- 
tercessory prayer, we hear Him exclaiming, as the hour 
of suffering is close at hand, " Father, the hour is come, 
glorify thy Son." And again, under the very shadow of 
the Cross, He breaks out into these words of triumph, 



THE SHEPHERD GIVING HIS LIFE FOB THE SHEEP. 61 

" Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in 
Him \" In the ease of the sacrifices of Pagan Borne, it was 

considered an evil omen if the victim struggled. If OUE all- 
glorious Victim had struggled or sta^ered in His wondrous 

O OO Co 

work, we must have been lost for ever ! But He falters not 
one moment. On He pursues the blood-stained path, 
until, stretched on the Tree, He can shout the last glorious 
word of triumph and of consummated victory, " It is fin- 
ished; 9 ' and yielding up the ghost, exclaims, " Father, into 
thy hands I commend my spirit." 

Oil ! wondrous, unspeakable condescension ! Matchless, 
unparalleled self-consecration ! He who had known no 
relation but that of co-equality with God ; He who is 
called " My Shepherd," " My Fellow;" He who was Him- 
self seated on the pinnacles of all Being, and superior to 
all law, yet is made under law ; He voluntarily assumed a 
place of subordination, and "took upon Him the form of 
a servant," Behold how He loved them ! His whole work 
is indeed a miracle and triumph of love. "We can under- 
stand the utterance of the sceptic of a former age, as the 
gospel plan of atoning mercy was unfolded to him — " It 
is far too great — it is far too good to be true." Yes, 
measuring the deed of love by human comparisons, or by 
human antecedents, it is so. Mail never so loved bis 
brother man. " But God so loved the world." We read 
in old classic story of a magnanimous patriot sacrificing- 
his life for another. Pylades laid clown his life for Orestes 
his friend. "But God commendeth His love toward us, 
in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." 
Well may He be called "the Good Shepherd." He, the 



62 THE gHEPHEED AND HIS FLOCK. 

true Jacob, can say, " That which was torn of beasts I bare 

the loss of it. In the day, the drought consumed me, and 
the frost by night, and my sleep departed from mine eyts! ; ' 
He, the true Aaron 3 with the burning coals in his censer of 
love, hath come between the living and the dead, and the 
plague is stayed ! He, the true David, when the lion and 
the bear were rushing on his defenceless flock, encoun- 
tered them single-handed and alone, and rescued th in 
from (, 'the mountains of prey!" He, the true Jonah, fli 
Himself into the boiling. surging deep, saying — " Take Me 
up, and cast Me forth into the sea: so shall the sea be 
calm unto you; and the sea ceased from her raging!'"' 
He, the loving Shepherd and Bishop of souls, comes to 
every Lost one. and pointing to the open gate of the fold, 
says — ' " Behold. I have set before you a:: : wrh 

Justice hath sheathed her sword. The arm of the law is 
powerless. " There is no condemnation to them that are 
-in Christ Jesus !'"" That must have been a wondrous 
morning when victorious Israel stood on the othei side of 
the Bed Sea — making its shores ring with their anthe 
of triumph. Terrible, too, were these trophies of Divine 
vengeance that strewed the beach: — the bodies of Pharaohs 
warriors, with the sword still fastened by their side or 
clutched with the grasp of death. Or awful must have 
been that kindred spectacle — the mailed legions of Sen- 
nacherib — who had, the night before, been gathering up 
their strength like a proud wave, to dash themselves 
against the towers of Zion. When the morning dawns, the 
180,000 are still there, with sword and spear and helmet 
and streaming banner; but these banners wave over a 



THE SHEPHERD GIVING HIS LIFE FOE THE SHEEP. 63 

silent camp. The trumpet of battle lies beside silent lips; 
—the gleaming sword is clutched by powerless hands. 
It is a camp of death. Sword and spear are still intact: 
but the arms that wielded them are powerless. The angel 
of death has descended at midnight, and converted the 
tented field into a sepulchre ! 

So it is with that sword of condemnation. The curses 
of the law, like the weapons of Pharaoh, or Sennacherib, 
are still there , each demanding satisfaction, and declaring, 
" The soul that sinneth it shall die/'' But the Great An^el 
has come down at midnight and paralysed these arms. 
He has, by His own doing and dying, rendered the law 
powerless to smite. " Christ hath redeemed us from the 
curse of the law by being made a curse for us." Ay, and 
not only are we thereby released from condemnation. It 
is more than a mere negative salvation which has been 
secured. An earthly king, by virtue of an act of royal 
clemency, can open the dungeon doors and let a prisoner 
go free. He is a pardoned man, — but he is not a justified 
man; — the old brand is still on his brow, though released 
from the fear of punishment and death. It is more, how- 
ever, with the redeemed sinner. jSTot only is he justi- 
fied, having the sentence — " Xot guilty/"' pronounced upon 
him; but he stands also arrayed in the imputed merits 
of that sinless Saviour. ' The live coal of pardon is taken 
from the smouldering fuel on the altar where the Great 
Sacrifice is laid. It touches his lips and he goes forth 
"clean"' 

Child of God, member of the ransomed Hock, which 
He hath purchased with His own blood, " as far as east is 



to 



64 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

distant from the west, so far hath He removed your trans- 
gressions from you." Wondrous picture ! You can take 
the wings of the morning, and make the sun your chariot 
— traverse intervening oceans and continents till that sun 
dips his burning wheels in the western wave ; and when 
you take a retrospective view of that magnificent circuit, 
think of it as God's own emblem of the distance to which 
He is willing to remove your transgressions from your 
sight and His own ! * 

Seek often, devoutly and reverentially, to contemplate 
this sacrificial work and atonement of your Great Shep- 
herd. Beware of the theology that is now-a-clays creep- 
ing stealthily in under subtle disguises and ingenious 
fallacies, which would rob us of that great central truth 
of Bible teaching, without which all others would be 
vain, — the vicarious sufferings of our blessed Lord ; Christ 
our Substitute — wounded for our transgressions ; raid 
though personally sinless, yet, as our Surety-Bedeemer, 
said to be "made sin for us" We do not undervalue the 
precious truth of Christ our Example — Christ, as we shall 
immediately come to consider Him, as our guiding Shep- 
herd, "going before His sheep," "leading them out" and 
marking out for them their pasture. But we would place, 
in peerless importance, in the foreground of these Shep- 
herd-picturings, the Altar of Sacrifice, the crown of thorns, 
and the bitter cross ; white-robed Justice with her un- 
sheathed weapon; — Heaven and Earth listening in hushed 
suspense — in mysterious silence, to the terrific summons — - 
" Awake, sword, against my Shepherd, and against the 
Man that is my fellow ; smite the Shepherd !" 



THE SHEPHERD GIVING HIS LIFE FOR THE SHEEP. 65 

Let us close these thoughts with a twofold lesson. 

What an awful thing is sin, which cost the Son of God 
so much ! 

How vile does it seem when brought side by side with 
the holiness of the Immaculate Surety ! As the light- 
ning, when it leaps from the midnight cloud, makes the 
darkness more felt; — -as discord is most grating to the 
ear when it rises in the midst of sublime and beauti- 
ful harmony ; — or as those northern battle-fields of olden 
days" and terrible memory, were all the more fearful to 
look upon, from seeing the blood crimsoning the virgin 
snow, — so, when we see the crimson and scarlet guilt 
of His people tinging the snow-white purity of that Spot- 
less Being, how terrible does sin appear ! How fearful 
must have been His recoil from this the foe of His nature 
and His universe, during* every step of His Divine pil- 
grimage ;— more especially at the closing scene, when the 
powers of darkness were gathered around His cross ; and 
how at that hour must He have longed with holy ardour 
to rescue from the pit of perdition the millions under its 
dominion and curse, otherwise doomed to suffer the ven- 
geance of eternal fire ! See that ye trifle not with an 
offered salvation, purchased at such an expenditure of 
blood and suffering. Oh, if, on account of sin, God " spared 
not His own Son" Sinner ! — thou who art still nurturing 
in thy bosom the adder which planted its fangs in the 
heart of Infinite Purity,— thinkest thou He will spare 
thee? If God poured out these vials of wrath on the 
Innocent, what will He do with the guilty? "If these 

E 



66 THE SHEPHEBD AND HIS FLOCK. 

things were done in the green tree, what shall be done 
with the dry?" 

The other closing lesson is one which runs like a golden 
thread through the entire theme we have so cursorily 
treated. Let it be the last on which the eye rests — the 
Love of God. God — the eternal God — smiting His Shep- 
herd — His Fellow — for the sake of lost sinners ! He, even 
He — could give no costlier proof of love than this. 
Reader! having given you the greater pledge, you may 
take it as a guarantee for the bestowment of all lesser 
blessings. When His providential dispensations at times 
seem baffling and mysterious ; — when there seems no bright 
light in the cloud, no mercy in His footstep; — when you 
are apt to say with Gideon, " If the Lord be with us, why 
has all this befallen us ? " revert to that cross — that mys- 
terious smiting ! Let it hush every rebellious- thought. 
Did He wear that crown of thorns for thee? Did He 
pour out His life's blood for thee ? And w r ilt thou mur- 
mur at aught proceeding from the Great and Good Shep- 
herd's hands ? 

" Yes ! God is love— a thought like this 
May well each faithless doubt remove, 
And turn all tears — all woes to blisa t 
For GOD IS LOVE [ m ■ 



(TIje goDv into tbc jJbcep-foftr, 



I AM THE DOOR : BY IME IF ANY MAN ENTER IN, HE SHALL EE SAVED, AND 
SHALL GO IN AND OUT. AND FIND PASTURE." — JOHN X. 9. 



THE DOOE INTO THE SHEEP-EOLD. 

IN our rapid survey of these varied Shepherd-picturings of 
sacred story, we have here reached the truth of all truths : 
Christ the Door into the sheep-fold; Christ the Way of 
salvation, the Entrance-gate to heaven. What the founda- 
tion is to a house, what the heart is to the human body, 
what the roots are to the tree, what the key-stone is to 
the arch, what the sun is to the circling planets, so does 
this great theme stand related to all the other doctrines 
of the Bible system. 

The verse which precedes this chapter, offers, in its suc- 
cessive clauses, three different topics for meditation. The 
Saviour, "I am the door;" Faith laying hold of the 
Saviour, "If any man enter in he shall be saved ;" and 
the privileges and blessedness of the saved, " They shall go 
in and out, and find pasture " 

First; we have The Door. " I am the door : by Me." 
In every age of the world there has been a groping for 
this wicket-gate, a seeking for the entrance to the true 
pasturage of life. Men, like the blinded citizens of Sodom 
of old, have been wearying themselves to find the door; 
and manifold have been the human systems and human 
devices that have sought to mimic the call of the true 
Shepherd. 



70 THE SHEPHFRD AXD HIS FLOCK. 

Paganism has been crying, " I am the door.' , She has 
made an approach through hecatombs of human sacrifice 
■ — giving the fruit of the body for the sin of the soul. 

Morality has been saying, and is still saying, " I am the 
door." Her creed is : ' Every man is his own door to 
the fold. Live well, do good, be kind, and amiable, and 
virtuous, and charitable. With moral principle and 
unblemished life, you will be independent of all other 
wicket-gates : you have the means of salvation within your- 
self.' As you may have seen the green ivy torn from the 
old crumbling ruin, to deck up and decorate the triumphal 
arch ; so morality tries thus to deck up her archway into 
the pastures of peace, w T ith rootless flowers, plucked from 
the ruins of our fallen nature. 

Ceremonialism proclaims, " I am the door." She ap- 
peared, in our Saviour's days, amid the wasted- forms of 
Judaism, pointing to ancestral privileges, the old covenant 
promises. Mitred priests, with their scrupulous ritual ob- 
servances, their legal washings and outward purifications ; 
Scribes and Pharisees, tithing mint and cummin, gilding 
the prophets' sepulchres, and uttering long prayers, stood 
with broad phylacteries, as sentinels at the entrance, say- 
ing, " We have Abraham for our father : none but the 
children of Abraham, with the seal of circumcision; can 
pass here!" She has appeared in modern times, making 
her doorway, at one time through sacramental efficacy ; at 
another, through the Shibboleth of party and denomina- 
tional distinction. At one time making the drops of water 
in baptism say, ' Through me ye shall be saved ; ' at an- 
other, making the minister or priest the custodier of the 



THE DOOR INTO THE SHEEP-FOLD. 71 

soul's safety, — the gate of admission, an entrance built 
with untempered mortar ! 

But " I am the door" says a divine Saviour, after the 
world had in vain, for four thousand years, groped in the 
dark for the true way. All other ways are spurious, all 
other doors are false and counterfeit. There are many 
ways that may seem right, but the end thereof are 
the ways of death, " Look unto Me, and be ye saved 
all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is 
none else." It is hard, indeed, for the natural man to 
surrender all his own efforts and labours, his virtues 
and goodness, and to be indebted, from first to last, to 
the doing and dying of Another. Hence the universal 
striving of the human race to find a door of their own into 
the fold, going about to establish their own righteousness, 
and refusing: to submit themselves to the righteousness of 
Christ. There is something, moreover, pleasing to this 
nature of ours, in the old condition of " work and win." 
In other things we commend the principle. It is delight- 
fid to see a man, by dint of his own talent or indomitable 
perseverance, climbing his way to eminence and distinc- 
tion; or, by bold arm and brave heart, sweeping all but 
insurmountable difficulties aside. It is delightful to see 
the working artizan, by means of energy, and brain, and 
toil, rising from the lowly cottage to the pinnacles of 
society. It is delightful to see the student — the son of 
peasant or mechanic — asserting the true nobility of genius, 
and, from lowly birth and obscure origin, becoming a 
fountain of wisdom ; or, in high places, wielding and in- 
fluencing a nation's destinies. It is noble to see the 



72 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

soldier, under fearful odds, facing the bristling ramparts, 
and, amid shot and shell, mounting the breach. But in 
the matter of salvation, — merit, self-glory, there is none. 
"Where is boasting?" exclaims the Apostle, "it is excluded." 
There is no climbing up by any other door here. There 
is no other lever by which the soul of fallen humanity can 
be raised out of the horrible pit and the miry clay. Just 
as all modern dynamics are puzzled and perplexed to find 
the lost power by which those colossal stones could have 
been upheaved in the temples of Memphis, or the Pyra- 
mids of Cairo ; so all moral dynamics of which man is the 
inventor, are vain to account for the elevation of the 
polished stones adorning the Heavenly temple — redeemed 
saints in glory. It was no inherent power, no effort of 
human wisdom, no device of human ingenuity, no recom- 
pense of human merit, which brought them there. Here 
is the one only leverage, " Christ, the poicer of God unto 
salvation unto every one that believetli" " He hath raised 
us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly 
places." Neither is there salvation in any other, " for there 
is none other name under heaven given among men where- 
by we must be saved/' 

Let us pass to the second clause of the verse, or Faith 
laying hold of the Saviour, " By me, if any man enter in 
he shall be saved." 

Christ, we have seen, is the Door of Salvation. Wide 
enough too is that door for the admission of all. " If any 
man" is the superscription on its portals. Whatever be the 
age, the country, the colour of skin; rich or poor, young or 



THE DOOR INTO THE SHEEP-FOLD. 73 

old, bond or free; — free as that sun in heaven which shines 
with indiscriminate splendour on mole-hill and mountain, 
on cottage and palace, on blade of grass and stately palm 
or cedar : free as that mountain-stream, singing its way, 
amid birch and heather, to lake or ocean : free as that 
stream is to the fish that sports in its pools, or to the wild 
deer of the forest or to the wayside pilgrim to slake their 
thirst : free as that ocean is to every vessel and every 
craft, from the rude fisherman's boat and the plank of the 
castaway, to the iron fortress, carrying its impenetrable 
sheathing and its sleeping thunders : — so free is that door 
of entrance into the fold of the Heavenly Shepherd. 
Around it, rich and poor may congregate together, with 
this plea, ' The Lord is the Eedeemer of us all/ It is not 
like the doors opening into the high places of the world. 
These are patent only tp the favoured few. These can only 
be opened by the key of influence, or merit, or intellect, or 
rank, or money (the golden key which fits all locks ;) 
while the multitude — the vast majority — stand outside, 
excluded. But all are warranted and welcome here. 

Although, however, this is true, and we glory in the 
fulness and freeness of the Gospel Salvation, yet its bless- 
ings are appropriated by faith. We are not mere passive 
machines, incapable of moral action, to be dragged in by 
force into the fold. We must reach out the hand of faith 
to accept the proffered boon. We must "enter in" if 
we would be saved, and enjoy the heavenly pasturage. 
God gives us Salvation as a beauteous Flower. But He 
does not give us that flower full blown. He gives it to 
us in seed. He has prepared the soil for it. He holds in 



74 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

His treasuries, the sun, and winds, and rains, and dews 
that are to nurture it. The glory of that flower will 
be all His, but if we do not plant it, it will not grow! 
God gives us Salvation as a Ship. He says, ' There is 
a vessel. I give you hulk, masts, rigging, helm, sails; 

I water, (the element through which it is to cleave its 
way ;) winds, (to fill its canvas ;) a safe and commodious 
haven to receive it at last. But it is for you to avail 
yourselves of these. If you misuse them, if you mistime 
them, if you neglect them : if you cast anchor out when 
you should be spreading your sails, and thus forfeit the 
favouring breeze : if you sleep your opportunities away of 
clearing the harbour, you never can reach the haven where 

j you would be V God gives us Salvation as a Home. He 

I points the pilgrim, in the blue distance, to the purchased 
inheritance. He provides him with staff, and scrip, and 
provender. He gives him feet to walk, and eyes to see, 
and strength and muscle, and guide-book for the journey. 
But if he cast these aside, and waste the live-long clay in 
folly or in slumber, the night will overtake him, and leave 
him unsheltered in the darkness and gloom ! God gives 
Salvation as a Fire. He provides the fuel ; but He leaves 
you to kindle it. The means for imparting warmth are all 

i of His own providing. You yourself can neither manufac- 
ture wood, nor coal, nor atmospheric air. But the air is 
given ; it is in abundance around you. The fagots are 
piled up beside the blind hearth ; but if you want to get 
warm, you must heap them together and kindle them, 
Xeglect this, and you will continue shivering in cold, and 
perish in the midst of plenty ! The poor cripple at Be- 



THE DOOR INTO THE SHEEP-FOLD. 75 

thesda, whatever might be the virtues of the troubled pool, 
had to " step in" if he would be whole of whatever disease 
he had ; and if others were more alert than he, or if he 
procrastinated and lingered, he forfeited the cure. Paul, 
though he had a divine assurance during the storm of 
Adria, that there would be the loss of no man's life, but 
only of the ship, yet worked unremittingly at the pumps, 
and sails, and rigging, as if the safety of every one on 
board depended on his exertions. Yes, I repeat, Faith, as 
spoken of by Christ, is a thing of action. He never re- 
presents it as a dreamy sentiment. Listen to some of the 
freest and most glorious of His invitations : — " Come unto 
me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give 
you rest." " Whosoever will, let him take of the water of 
life freely." "Enter ye in at the strait gate." "Strive 
to enter in at the strait gate." " If any man enter in, he 
shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture/' 

Away, then, with that dishonouring religion that would 
degrade' man into a mere automaton— deprive him of will, 
choice, and moral responsibility. The wicket gate is open ; 
— the Saviour-Shepherd is addressing in language of im- 
portunate invitation. But it is for you to rise and obey 
the summons. The ladder of salvation, like Jacob's of 
old, stretches from earth to heaven. But the ladder must 
be climbed. You never can enter " within the gate into 
the city," if you remain, like the patriarch, slumbering at 
its base ! 

What is the reason that so many refuse to obey the 
invitation and enter in ? It is because they object to 
comply with the one only binding condition. They enter ; 



76 THE SHEPHERD A.ND HIS FLOCK. 

but they would enter and partake of the heavenly pastur- 
age with their sins too. They would take Christ as a 
Saviour, but not as a Sanctifier. They would take Christ 
as a Priest, but not as a King. There can be no admission 
on such ungospel terms. That door, wide enough to ad- 
mit all, — is too narrow to admit any carrying the bur- 
den of known and indulged sin. Think of a man — a 
drowning man — escaping from the sinking ship. He has 
enough to do to buffet his way through tempest and surg- 
ing sea ; — yet he rushes back to rescue some hoarded gold. 
He might have reached the rocks girdling the shore, if he 
had taken nothing to hamper or impede him. But these 
dead weights have dragged him to his grave in sight of 
safety. He and his gold perish together ! 

Ah, remember that solemn truth — that Jesus saves you 
from your sins— not in your sins. As Paul, in that same 
threatened shipwreck, counselled that all the vessel's 
freight and treasures should be cast into the deep; so 
be it yours to say, with reference to every loved and 
cherished sin," "Yea, doubtless, and I count all things 
but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ 
Jesus my Lord." 

There yet remains to be noticed, the description here 
given of the saved — their privileges and blessedness ; they 
"shall go in and out and find pasture." 

This beautifully describes the Christian, in his relation 
to the world. He " goes in and out from the fold ; " he 
goes to and from the world, with his Lord ever in view. 
From Christ and His cross he draws his every motive for 



THE DOOR INTO THE SHEEP-FOLD. 77 

duty in the midst of life's labours and occupations. He 
goes out to the world, through Christ " the door." He re- 
turns from the world through the same. He looks to Him 
as the alone path of safety. In the words of Zechariah, 
he "walks up and down in His name." 

Happy for the Church and for the believer, if the sense 
of Jesus' presence and love were thus interfused through 
all work and toil : — if out in the world's bleaker pasturage- 
ground — as well as within, in the quiet of the homestead — 
the eye were ever directed towards that open door. Jesus 
is elsewhere personated as Wisdom. He is represented as 
' opening His voice in the city ' — 'crying in the chief place 
of concourse, in the opening of the gates/ And this is 
true Religion — true Christianity; — to carry a sense of a 
living Saviour,- — the realised consciousness of our covenant 
relation and consecration to Him, out amid the world's 
din and bustle — to the Exchange, the shop, the mart of 
commerce— as well as to the more consecrated pasture- 
grounds where His people feed. And the Christian, too, 
may find pasture in both,— -in public and in private — in 
the field and the fold — in the world and in the closet. In 
public, he can be sustained by lofty principles. In private, 
by prayer and secret fellowship with his Lord. " Giving 
thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in 
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ/' Having his eye on 
that door, he can say, "I can do all things through Christ 
which strengthened me." 

Thus have we briefly glanced at one of the most prer 
cious utterances qf the Great Shepherd. 



78 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

How these, and such like gracious words which pro- 
ceeded out of His mouth, must have told on the wondering 
multitudes He addressed; — those who never heard kind 
sayings before; — who were led to imagine that it was 
learned scribes, or sanctimonious Pharisees, or austere Sad- 
ducees, or stoled priests, who alone had any hope of Sal- 
vation ! Can we marvel that " the common people heard 
Him gladly " — when He lifted them up from the dust of 
degradation ; — when He proclaimed boldly — " I came not 
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." I came 
not to call you rich — you learned — you who pique your- 
selves on your religious formalism, and self-righteous 
austerities. But you broken-hearted penitents, weeping 
prodigals, despairing Magdalenes, — you the most erring 
wanderers from the fold, who are really and earnestly 
seeking to return. " If any man thirst, let him come unto 
me and drink." " If any man enter in he shall be saved, 
and shall go in and out, and find pasture/' 

Eeader ! say not, ' This invitation cannot be for me. I 
cannot enter, just as I am, maimed and fleece-torn, with 
the memory of countless transgressions/ Yes ! it is just 
because you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and 
blind, and naked, that we invite you to come. Come, just 
as you are. God does not require any previous qualifica- 
tion. It is because of your poverty that He so importunately 
exclaims — " Behold, I have set before you an open door/' 
When in a season of scarcity and want, thousands thrown 
out of employment are forced to avail themselves of bread 
doled out to stay the rage of hunger ; they are not heard 
to say — ' We must have proper clothing first We must 



THE DOOR INTO THE SHEEP-FOLD. 79 

first cover these children's bleeding, frost-bitten feet, before 
we can venture to appear before the almoners of a city's or 
a nation's bounty.' No ; if they did so, it would vitiate 
their plea ; — it would send them home again to a cupboard 
and hearth, and wardrobe, as empty as they left it. It is 
because they appear in tattered rags, and because hunger 
has written its appeal on their emaciated faces, and in the 
hollow eyes of the hapless children at their side, that the 
door opens for relief. 

Eemember, there is but the one door of safety, and no 
other. There was but one way to the Hebrews of old, for 
evading the destroying angel — by the sprinkling of blood 
on the door-posts of their dwellings. There was but one 
way through the Eed Sea from the pursuing hosts of Pha- 
raoh. There was but one way for Eahab escaping the 
general destruction of Jericho — by hanging out from her 
window the scarlet thread. There was but one way — ■ 
by washing in the river of Jordan — that the proud Syrian 
captain could have his leprosy healed. Israel might have 
built up Egyptian pyramid on pyramid to keep out the 
messenger of wrath. It would have been of no avail. Or 
the million army, passing through the Eed Sea, might have 
piled up its coral rocks to make an avenue through the 
waters. The wild waves would liave laughed them to scorn, 
and made them the plaything of its tide ! Naaman might 
have made a toilsome pilgrimage to every river of Asia — 
from Abana and Pharpar, to the Euphrates and the Indus 
— but all would have been to no purpose. Nothing but 
1 the waters of Israel' would prove efficacious in curing his 
malady. 



80 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

Arise, then, make sure of safety ; wing your flight to 
the Rock of Ages. You are only safe when you are found 
nestling in its crevices. Unmoved by storms, unworn 
and unsplintered by the destroying hand of time, Jesus, 
the Living Bock, stands infinite — immutable — all-suffi- 
cient; — faithful among the faithless — changeless among the 
changeable. Yes ! thou who art weary, sick at heart of 
the vain world which has deceived thee ; — bubble after 
bubble bursting in thine hands, feeding on the husks of 
the swine and the rubbish of the wilderness ; — thy Shep- 
herd, with outstretched arms, is waiting to welcome thee 
back. He is standing, as He did eighteen hundred years 
ago, by the door of the sheep-fold, saying, "I am the Door/' 
" Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out ! " 



Cjxe jiljtpljerfr jpmg hdaxt % Jfkth. 



"he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. and 
when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, 

AND THE SHEEP FOLLOW HIM: FOB THEY KNOW HIS VOICE."— JOHN X. 3, 4. 



THE SHEPHEED GOING BEFOEE THE FLOCK. 

Beautiful is the feeling of fondness, we had almost said 
of affection, which from time to time we see displayed by 
man towards the lower animals. The cottager on the lonelv 
moor or in the highland shieling has his faithful dog to 
tend him in his hours of labour, or to share morning 
and evening; his frugal fare and the caresses of his chil- 
dren. Even in the dense city, the poverty-stricken inmate 
of the garret has her hours of solitude cheered by the 
tiny warbler hung up with dusky plumage in its cage, 
It is no simulated sorrow on her part when the note 
falters and the wing droops ; and the cage is suspended 
empty and songless by the begrimed windows. The same 
feeling, on a more remarkable scale still, may be seen in 
the case of the Hindoo with his elephant, or the Arab 
with his horse ; and, niost of all, in that of the Oriental 
■ shepherd with his fleecy companions. 

We would require to be among the hills of Judah and 
Gilead, or amid the vast wadys and forests of Bashan and 
Hermon, rightly to appreciate and understand the ex- 
quisite beauty of the figure which we are now to con- 
sider in the Pastoral parable. In these wide sheep-walks 
and mountain-ranges the shepherd occupies very much 
the relation of a parent to his offspring. He has a tender 
solicitude for each member of his flock. He is not the 



84 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

rough hireling or stern custodier, but the kind protector 
and provider. He knows every sheep. He has a name 
for each. By night and by day he is at their side. During 
the hot months of summer they are taken on the cool 
mountain heights to a temporary fold, composed of a pali- 
sade of intertwined branches of thorn. He sleeps armed 
in the midst of them. He is ready to give battle to any 
prowling lord of the forest who [as is sometimes the case) 
clears at a bound the temporary rampart, — ''The wolf 
cometh and scattereth the sheep." Instances are on re- 
cord where he has cheerfully given his life in deadly con- 
flict, either with human plunderers or wild animals, for 
the protection of his flock. During the continuance of 
long drought, when the heavens are as brass and the earth 
as iron — when the herbage is dried and the sheep go 
_ bleating and pining over the withered pastures — lie 
climbs the rock to the verdant turf fringing the hidden 
watercourse, and brings at his own peril a scant handful 
for the most needy. At other seasons, when the northern 
forests are alive with flocks gathered underneath the trees, 
the faithful shepherds mount the branches, and, strip- 
ping them of their leaves, cast them down to the com- 
panions of their solitude. Can we wonder that the sheep 
follow the Shepherd: — that they gather round him as 
their friend — love to hear his voice, and implicitly trust 
his guidance ? Moreover, can we wonder, that to the 
mind of the Divine Redeemer, this lovely image, so fami- 
liar to every Hebrew, should be touchingly suggestive of 
the trustful love — the hallowed interchange of affection 
between Himself and His true people I 



THE SHEPHEED GOING BEFORE THE ELOCK. 80 
"WHEN HE PUTTETH FORTH HIS OWX SHEEP HE GOETH 

beeoee them." Let us gather a few comforting reflections 
veiled under this symbolism. 

There is, first of all, the general truth, that all our 
pastures — our lots — our positions and spheres of life — 
are appointed and meted out for us. That the Gracious 
Shepherd of Israel precedes us. That He does not put 
us outside the wicket-gate of the fold, and then leave 
us to select our own destiny ; but that all which con- 
cerns us is His righteous ordination and decree. "The 
lot may be cast into the lap, but* the whole dispos- 
ing thereof is of the Lord." As surely as the pillar of 
cloud and fire preceded Israel in their marches, directing 
every encampment of the pilgrim army, so have we the 
Invisible Pillar of covenant faithfulness going before us 
in all our journey. True, it is with us, as with Moses, 
On his return to the spot in the Sinai desert, where he 
first saw the bush burning with fire, the bush was probably 
visible no more. He would look for it in vain. But 
the sacred flame in which it formerly was enveloped, still 
lived in the spiral column which rose up before him hy 
ht, and in the piilar-cloud by day. Christ in His 
human nature — Christ the lowly bush of the desert — "the 
tender plant" — "the root out of the dry ground;" Christ iiv 
His humiliation,— " manifest in the flesh " — we can see no 
more. But the Pillar of fire still remains. The Shepherd 
of the Flock — the invisible Eedeemer is still preceding thfc 
camp of His covenant Israel : and we can say with refer- 
ence to our spiritual journey ings, as it was said of old of 



86 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

the Hebrew Exodus, "He led them forth by the right way, 
that they might go to a city of habitation." Oh, it is well 
for ns that we are not left to choose our own pasture — 
to thread at will the mazy labyrinths of life ! " My pre- 
sence," He says, " shall go with you, and I will give you 
rest/' It is the Shepherd going armed before His sheep : 
not only pointing out the way, but seeing that it is prac- 
ticable. It is the Master Husbandman going before with 
the ploughshare, his servants tracking his steps and 
inserting the seed in the upturned furrow. It is the 
General going before his soldiers, himself the first to scale 
the ladder and enter the opened breach, encouraging 
his troops to foilow r after him. The Great Shepherd 
asks us to tread no path which has not already been 
trodden by Himself. Think of the varied incidents in 
His life of human love and sympathy and suffering on 
earth : and, connecting these with every possible diver- 
sity of circumstance and experience of sorrow among our- 
selves, remember " HE goeth before us ! " Is it infancy ? 
He went before us here, in being Himself the Babe of 
Bethlehem I Is it youth ? He ' goeth before us ' in the 
nurturing home of Nazareth, sanctifying early toil and 
filial obedience! Is it hours of weariness and faintness 
and poverty? He 'goeth before us' an exhausted traveller 
to the well of Jacob, ' weary with His journey i ' Is it temp- 
tation we have to struggle with ? He 'goeth before us ' to 
the wilderness of Judea, and to the awful depths of the 
olive-groves of Gethsemane, to grapple with the hour and 
power of darkness ! Is it loss of friends ? He f goeth be- 
fore us ' to the grave of Bethany to weep there ! Is it 



THE SHEPHERD GOIXG BEFORE THE FLOCK. 87 

Death (the last enemy) we dread? He 'goeth before 
us' wrapped in the cerements of the tomb — descending 
into the region of Hades — uncrowning the King of Terrors 
— trampling his diadem in the dust ! Is it entrance into 
Heaven ? He ( goeth before us ' there. Having overcome 
the sharpness of death, He has opened the kingdom of 
heaven to all believers. He shows us the path of life 
leading into His own blessed presence, where there is 
fulness of joy, and to His right hand, where there are 
pleasures for evermore. 

But it is the individual, personal solicitude of the Shep- 
herd in the wellbeing of each of His people, which forms 
one of the loveliest inspired touches in St John's parable- 
chapter. " He calleth His own sheep by name!' As the 
Oriental Shepherd has a distinguishing name for each 
separate member of his flock,* so Christ has His eye on 
each individual believer, — loves him, leads him, feeds 
him, " names" him, — as if he were the alone object of His 
care and regard. It is not as with the husbandman, — ■ 
who can call his field of grain by name, but cannot cliscri- 



* " Having had my attention directed last night to the words in John x. 
3, I asked my man if it was usual in Greece to give names to the sheep. 
He informed me that it was, and that the sheep obeyed the shepherd when 
he called them by their names. This morning I had an opportunity of 
verifying the truth of this remark. Passing by a flock of sheep ; I asked 
the Shepherd the same question which I had put to the servant, and he 
gave me the same answer. I then bade him call one of his sheep. He 
did so, and it instantly left its pasturage and its companions and ran up 
to the hand of the shepherd with signs of pleasure, and with a prompt obe- 
dience, which I had never before observed in any other animal." — Hartley's 
Researches in Greece and the Levant, quoted in Smith's Bible Dictionary. 



88 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

minate each separate stalk. It is not as with the astro- 
nomer, who, although he can name some stars or groups of 
stars, leaves myriads unnamed in the wide field of immen- 
sity. It is not as with the general, who, though he can 
name a few of the more illustrious of his soldiers and 
officers, knows the rest of his brave thousands only in the 
mass. But as sheep by sheep passes* in review before 
the Good Shepherd — He know T s all their cases, their cir- 
cumstances, their trials — their sorrows, their joys. He 
calls them "friends," "brethren," "peculiar treasure," — 
" I have called thee by thy name : thou art mine !" Yes ! 
let us not lose the unutterable comfort of this, by resolving 
all into the doctrine of a mere superintending Providence : — 
that God takes a general oversight and supervision of His 
creatures and their actions, but that of the minute circum- 
stances and accidents of their daily life He takes no cog- 
nizance. His is a minute, personal, discriminating love. 
The individual is not lost in the mass or the aggregate. 
Believer ! He loves you as if you stood alone in His world, 
and as if He had none other but you, on whom to lavish 
His solicitudes ! This same Great Leader, on another 
occasion, takes yet a smaller member of the lower creation, 
than that spoken of in this parable, to teach the same 
truth. He points to one of the sparrows of the housetop, 
I lying with fluttering wing in the highway or in the fur- 
I row— and He says, 'Not one of these fall to the ground 
i without my Father knowing of it/ " Tear ye not, there- 
fore, ye are of more value than many sparrows." 

Most comforting and consoling truth! Jesus — the 
Shepherd-Saviour — the Brother in my nature — " mighty 



THE SHEPHERD GOING BEFORE THE FLOCK. 89 

to save" as God, mighty to compassionate as man, ever 
preceding me ; — marking out all that befals me ; appoint- 
ing and controlling the minutest events in my personal 
history, and loving me with an affection of which earth's 
tenderest relationships afford the feeblest type. See the 
mother seated by the couch of her suffering child ! Watch 
her tender unremitting care; — the hours and nights of 
sleepless vigilance, she bends over the cherub form, — 
smoothing its pillow, and moistening its fevered lips. 
What a picture ! It is earth's most touching symbol of 
love and sacred affection. God points to that watchful 
parent and says — " She may forget, yet will I not forget 
thee I" 



Cbe Jfktk Jfllfofomg % J%pjfer&< 



" AND THE SHEEP FOLLOW HIM, FOR THEY KNOW HIS VOICE.'* — JOHN X. 4. 
" MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE, AND I KNOW THEM, AND THEY FOLLOW ME."—* 
JOHN x. 27. 



THE FLOCK FOLLOWING THE SHEPHERD. 

If British travellers in Palestine are, with singular una- 
nimity, arrested by the novel spectacle of the Shepherd 
going before the sheep, still more impressive, to the eye 
unaccustomed to such scenes at home, seems to be the 
docility with which the sheep follow the Shepherd. It is 
a beautiful living picture in the dumb creation of trustful 
and confiding attachment. One or two truants of the flock 
may stray into the tempting corn-fields, unhedged and 
unfenced close by ; but the vast majority follow closely 
the footsteps of their guide. An accurate personal ob- 
server of pastoral life in the Judean hills has noted, that 
if the sheep stoop down to take a mouthful of the grass 
across which their Shepherd leads them, they lift up their 
heads to see that he is at hand, fearful of losing sight of 
him, and of finding themselves beyond reach of his voice. 
They will even plunge into the stream or swollen torrent 
if he should lead the way.* 

Is this a feeble figurative description of our docile, trust- 
ful following of the Good Shepherd ? Can it be said of us 
in any humble sense, "We have the mind of Christ ?" 



* " This simple creature," says Luther, " has this special note among all 
animals, that it quickly hears the voice of the Shepherd, follows no one else, 
depends entirely on him, and seeks help from him alone — cannot help itself 
but is shut up to another's aid." 



92 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

For what is the great lesson shadowed forth under this 
figurative language, hut that our aim, as His people — the 
flock of His pasture— should be, to have each thought, 
wish, feeling, desire, coincident with His holy will. 
"Following Jesus" is just, in other words, doing always 
those things that are pleasing in His sight. Let us dwell 
upon this a little more particularly. 

To follow Jesus as His spiritual sheep, we must do so 
faithfully. We are (or ought to be) divine artists making 
the character of the Redeemer our study, seeking to 
transfer, with scrupulous fidelity to our hearts and lives, 
a copy — imperfect, indeed, at best it must be — of the 
glorious Original. The four Gospels are the four corri- 
dors of a great picture-gallery, opening into one an- 
other. Their w r alls are crowded and frescoed- with de- 
lineations from the story of His life on earth: — scenes 
illustrative of the divine virtues of the Shepherd of Israel 
—for our imitation and example. Here is one picture 
of matchless humility — He is washing His disciples' feet. 
Another — He is w T eeping with a group of mourners in a 
Jewish grave-yard. Another — He is bearing unmerited 
indignities, in meek, unmurmuring silence. Another — 
He commends, in His dying hour, His sorrowing, bereft 
parent to the care of a trusted friend. Another— 
He stretches .out the hand of forgiveness to an un- 
grateful disciple. Another-— while the chariot of cloud is 
waiting to carry Him upwards to His mediatorial Throne, 
His arms of unselfish love are extended in blessing 
the bereaved and orphaned men of Galilee! What sub- 



THE FLOCK FOLLOWING THE SHEPHERD. 93 

l lime pictures are these for our study! Let our transcript 
— poor, marred, blemished at the best — be as faithful 
an approximation as we can. The nearer the artist is 
placed to the work of the Great Master, the more exact 

\ and successful his copy will be. " Consider/' says the 

| apostle, (literally " gaze upon ") "Jesus Christ" Study the 
divine portraiture, line by line, feature by feature, till you 
transfix on the tablet of your own heart some faint re- 

i semblance of His spotless character. " Let this mind be 
in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." 

In following the guiding Shepherd, let us do so joyfully, 
The Oriental sheep does not follow with reluctance. It is 
not driven with the goad of some cruel hireling, or terri- 
fied into tractability by the dog baying at its heels. It is 
a free, voluntary, joyful obedience. It would be unhappy 
to hear any other voice, or to follow 'any other footstep. 
It obeys the call of the Shepherd, because it delights to be 
near him. 

This is the picture of the true believer. He follows his 
Lord with joy. It is not the cold, hard motive of duty — 
but rather, duty is transformed into delight. If you ask 
? him why he follows his Shepherd, he will reply, "The 
love of Christ constraineth me!" The flower does not 
] follow the sun grudgingly and under constraint. It does 
[ not hide its blushing tints in the shade, or creep under 
1 some crevice to escape the light. On the contrary, it is 
: strange to see the efforts it makes to free itself from its nook 
i of concealment, and get refreshment and revival for its 
f leaves and blossoms. The air feeds its invisible vessels: the 



I 



94 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

dews moisten leaf, and stem, and root; the sun pours upon all 
its genial warmth ; and the grateful and joyous inanimate 
thing, pushes upwards, as* if it longed to be ever nearer the 
great dispenser of light and blessing. Why should we 
creep like unhealthy plants afraid of the sunshine ? "These 
things," says Christ, " have I spoken unto you, that my 
joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." 
" Eejoice," says the noblest of His followers, " in the Lord 
alway, and again I say rejoice." Be true sheep to your 
guiding Shepherd, and you will " go on your way rejoic- 
ing." 

Endeavour to follow the Great Shepherd habitually. 
The Syrian sheep does not follow its Shepherd by fits 
and starts ; seeking to be near him only when the wolf is 
prowling, or when the dog is on its track; — when the night 
shadows are falling, or the pasture is diminishing. It is 
generally found close to its protector and guide. It is an 
undeviating trustful companionship, in sunshine and storm 
— in fulness and in drought — in summer and winter. 

So it is, or ought to be, with the Believer ; — a constant, 
consistent, habitual following of his Lord, seeking ever to 
have a realising sense of His nearness, Not merely, when 
trouble is nigh ; in the hour of affliction and sad calamity, 
or of impending death ; but in the midst of life's joyous 
sunshine, when verdure is on the mountain side, when the 
rills are singing their way down to the lower valley, and 
the tinkling bells, answering from fold to fold, tell of no- 
thing but peace, and safety, and repose. It is not great, or 
special, or extraordinary experiences which constitute in 



THE FLOCK FOLLOWING THE SHEPHERD. 95 

the best sense the ' religious character/ It is the uniform 
daily walk with God ; serving Him in little things as well 
as great things; — in the ordinary duties and every-day 
avocations, as well as in the midst of grave and eventful 
contingencies. As the sublimest symphony is made up 
of separate single notes ; — as the wealth of the cornfield is 
made up of separate stalks, or rather of separate grains; 
— as the magnificent texture, with its gorgeous combina- 
tions of colour, its pictures cunningly interleaved by the 
hand or the shuttle, is made up of individual threads ; — as 
the mightiest avalanche that ever came thundering down 
from its Alpine throne, uprooting villages and forests, is 
made up of tiny snow-flakes ; — so it is with the spiritual 
life. That life is itself the grandest illustration of the 
power of littles. Character is the product of daily, hourly 
actions, and words, and thoughts ; — daily forgivenesses, un- 
selfishness, kindnesses, sympathies, charities, sacrifices for 
the good of others, struggles against temptation, submissive- 

ness under trial. Oh, it is these, like the blending colours 

-■*■■■ 
in a picture, or the blending notes of music, which consti- 
tute " the man ! " It is when the whole being is in harmony 
with the BivTne will; — this — this is the true " Psalm of 
Life}" The flower, of which we spoke a little ago, has 
no set clays for following the sun, and drinking in his radi- 
ance ; neither has it any set days for exhaling its own per- 
fume. It swings its censer of incense in the still air all 
summer long. So with the Christian. His heart is a true 
sun-flower, following the Great Spiritual Luminary from 
dawn to eventide, drooping its head in sadness when the 
night shadows fall, and ready to expand the folded blossom 



96 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

again, at the summons of the morning. He does not give 
God the Sabbath merely, and closes his leaves and petals 
to holy influences all the week. He seeks to begin it 
carry it on, and end it under the consciousness of the 
Divine favour. His morning prayer strikes the key-note of 
each day. " Give ear, Shepherd of Israel, thou that 
leadest Joseph like a flock/' 

Let us seek, as the Flock of Christ, to follow the Shepherd 
only. No other voice, no other leader ought we to hear. 
There are other voices to which, in these days, we are apt 
to listen, rather than that of the Heavenly Shepherd. In 
these divided modern sheepfolds, we have one saying, f Pau 
is my shepherd ; ' another, ( Apollos is mine ; ' another, 
' Cephas is mine.' We hear the word " toleration " applied 
among professing Christians more frequently than we should. 
Sheep tolerating one another; — Shepherds tolerating one 
another ; ay, and sometimes not even that. Salvation is 
made to turn on the question of sectarianism. The Jewish 
sheep and the Jewish shepherds have no dealing with the 
Samaritan sheep and the Samaritan shepherds. Sheep are 
excluded — excommunicated from the fold — because they 
have not some discriminating symbols of human device, 
apart from God's symbol of holiness of character. Oh, that 
we had done with these wretched man-made distinctions ! 
They are like the marks the earthly shepherd puts on the 
wool of his sheep to distinguish them, but which are no 
test whatever of intrinsic value. As we have seen some 
of the basest truants of the fold, some poor, haggard, 
pertinacious wanderers, bearing on their fleece imposing 



ft **• ' I 



THE FLOCK FOLLOWING THE SHEPHERD. 97 

. initials : so it is by no artificial lettering — no church or 
| denominational symbolism — that we are to discriminate the 
true sheep of Christ. What says Paul, that noble under- 
shepherd? "Be ye," he says, "followers of me" — or fol- 
\ lowers of Apollos — or followers of Cephas. How ? u I 
j as far as we are followers of Christ" No further. ' Follow 
\ us only as we follow the Chief Shepherd. Follow us onl 
if you hear in us His voice.' God's mark is that which He 
set of old on Caleb — " He wholly followed the Lord his 
God." Not that we plead for a condition of the Church 
i which we have no reason either to expect or desire ; — an 
j amalgamating of all the different sects and sections — an 
absorption of all the different folds into one. We ques- 
tion if this would be the mind of the Chief Shepherd.* 
But as on our own hill slopes and mountain sides at 
eventide, there comes from the pendent bells of many 
separate folds, a sweet and pleasing harmony of blended 
| sound, so there might be (there ought to be) union if 
j not communion — co-operation if there be not wcorporor- 
tion. " Whereto we have attained, let us w^alk by the 



* There is an unfortunate rendering of the original Greek, in the Eng- 
lish translation, of that striking and beautiful saying of the Good Shepherd : 
" And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold : them also I must 
bring, and they shall hear my voice ; and there shall be one fold, and one 
shepherd," (John x. 16.) The word translated in the last clause "one 
fold," should unquestionably rather be "one nock." It is not iua avkrj, 
but jjia iroifAv-q. May we not from this infer, that in that prophetic mil- 
lennial ingathering, there is to be — not one exclusive Fold-enclosure, but 
" one flocl: ?" There may still continue to be many " folds," — churches still 
retaining their outward, external symbolism and organisation; but own- 
ing one common pasture ; — animated with one spirit, — a one flock," under 
the care and love of 'one Shepherd." q 






98 THE SHEPHEKD AND HIS FLOCK. 

same rule, let us mind the same thing :" 
brother wherever we see a true follower of Jesus ; extend- 
ing Christian sympathy and fellowship wherever we see the 
unmistakable marks of the spiritual character and life. Feel- 
ing that where Christ is, alone there is safety, be this ever 
our prayer — "Tell me, O Thou whom my soul loveth, 
where Thou feedest — where Thou makest thy flock to rest at 
noon, for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the 
flocks of thy companions/' What is the answer of the 
Shepherd to this suppliant's plaint ? It is not, " Go, and 
you will find Me in this or that artificial fold ; " but, " Go 
wherever you see amid sheep or shepherds M y own reflected 
image and character." " Go thy way by the footsteps of the 
flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherd's tents." 

Up! and follow the 'Lord fully. The traveller, overtaken 
in the snow-storm, knows that the longer he dallies, the 
greater will be his danger. He grasps his pilgrim-staff, and, 
facing the cutting wind and blinding drift, he pursues his 
arduous way. It is a blessed promise, " Then shall we know 
if we follow on to know the Lord!' And the nearer we are in 
conscious fellowship with Christ, the more closely we track 
His footsteps, — the safer and more joyous and more privi- 
leged we shall be. An intelligent observer, in speaking of 
some sheep who are always nearest the shepherd, says, 
" These are his special favourites. He is ever distributing 
to such, choice portions which he gathers for that purpose." * 
Near Christ now, He will feed us with the finest of the 
wheat. Near Him now, we shall be privileged to enjoy 
nearer access to Him hereafter. Our spiritual condition 

* " The Land and the Book." 



THE FLOCK FOLLOWING THE SHEPHERD. 99 

and position now will determine our place in the fold above. 
It is according as we gravitate on earth, near the Great 
central Spiritual Sun, that our orbit will be fixed in the 
celestial firmament. While yet, then, still at a distance 
from the heavenly pastures, be it ours to imbibe the spirit, 
and to walk in the footsteps of our Shepherd-Kedeemer, that 
when we reach the golden meadows of heaven, when we 
take our place among the flock of the ransomed, it may 
still be said of us, in a nobler sense, "These are they 

WHOH FOLLOW THE LAMB WHITHERSOEVER He GOETH." 



%\t Sang of % Jftek. 



44 THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD, I SHALL NOT WANT." — PS. Xxiii. 1. 



THE SONG OF THE FLOCK 

What a deathless poem the 23d Psalm is ! It is the 
psalm of all psalms. Our Bibles would be robbed of their 
brightest jewel without it; and our memories of a gar- 
nered and cherished treasure. What a myriad multitude 
there would be, could we assemble all who have ever read 
or sung it ! There would be the sufferer on the sick-bed 
shortening and beguiling his weary vigils by repeating its 
consolations. There would be the martyr chanting it at 
his stake as the flames wrapt their red winding-sheet 
around him. There woijld be the soldier in his bivouac 
on the eve of battle, pondering its majestic solaces, by the 
smouldering embers of his fire — or his Bible found among 
the heaps of the slain, with its leaf turned down at the 
song of ' the valley of the shadow of death/ There would 
be the shepherd, wandering by the green pastures and still 
waters, warbling the strains of the inspired minstrel of 
all time, who had thus sanctified his calling. There would 
be the bereaved mourner stooping over some withered 
flower — deploring some extinguished light in the earthly 
dwelling — singing of a house and home where he and his 
restored loved ones would dwell for ever. It has been 
sung on the hills of prosperity and in the valleys of woe, — 
by the tongue of prattling infancy — by manhood in its 
prime, and by old age with its tottering step, leaning pii the 



102 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

rod and staff of which, it touchingly speaks. Little did 
he who first swept its numbers on his harp, think of the 
legacy he had thus bequeathed to the Church of the future; 
I when, in some bright moment of his own waning years, he 
| lifted the curtain of life and reposed in thought on the 
I fond images of boyhood, as by day he led his sheep along 
the mountain sides, and by night folded them in the shel- 
tered hollows; taking these memories of sweet sunshine 
as hallowed symbols of the shepherd-love and faithfulness 
of God. The images of this pastoral-song may be of 
earth, but its pedigree is of heaven — it is a heaven-born 
psalm. Surely, Goodness and Mercy, the two guardian 
angels — sister spirits — spoken of at its close, must have 
fetched it on shining wings down from the upper sanctuary. 
For three thousand years has it gladdened, comforted, 
solaced the Church in the wilderness. " Its line has gone 
through all the earth, and its words to the end of the 
world." And the numbers now singing it in the Church be- 
low are nothing to the ransomed tongues in the Church of 
the first-born to whom its undying cadence is still dear. 

Let us at present gather around the opening sentence — 
the opening strain. " The Lokd is my Shepherd, I shall 

KOT WANT." 

Jehovah, " All-sufficient," the covenant Shepherd of His 
people ; — embarked on their side, and pledged for their sal- 
vation. The old patriarch Jacob speaks of the " Shepherd of 
Israel:;" Peter speaks of "the Shepherd and Bishop of souls." 
But David uses a loftier — more endearing epithet. That Al- 
mighty — all-sufficient — omnipotent Being, says he, is mine; 
-—He is MY Shepherd; or as he elsewhere sings — "This God 



I 



/ 



THE SOXG OF THE FLOCK. 103 

is our Gocl for ever and ever, He will be our guide even 
unto death." It is not the promises of God he leans upon, 
it is upon God Himself. It is not the streams he drinks 
of; but, stooping over the Infinite Fountain, he exclaims, 
' Behold my covenant portion ! God is the strength of 
my heart, and my portion for ever/ We know not if he 
shared the beautiful belief of the Hebrews regarding atten- 
dant angels hovering over the human pathway from birth 
to death. But he seems to say, "Here I have a nobler 
creed — a mightier Guardian, — ' The Lord of angels is my 
shepherd/ M 

Let us consider, a little more particularly, the words of 
our motto-verse, as expressive of these three things — 
Thankfulness for the past, Confidence in the present, and 
Trust for the future ; although these must necessarily be 
suggestive of some similar consoling truths which we have 
already dwelt upon, in a preceding chapter. 

Let us view this song of the flock of God as expres- 
sive of thankfulness for the past. Jehovah, All-sufficient, 
HAS been my Shepherd. 

Many there are who can see no better law or principle 
regulating the allotments of their daily life, than accident 
and capricious fortune. They see the shuttles of apparent 
chance darting hither and thither in the loom of existence, 
weaving a web of varied hue — an intricate pattern, — black 
threads and white threads — joy and sorrow, in strange and 
fitful alternation. Nay, not so! The shuttle is in the 
hands of the Great Artificer. Life is not a mere kaleidos- 
cope — its events gliding and shaping themselves into fan- 



104 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

ciful and wayward combinations. God lias a plan, a 
divine plan, in all. Every mercy is His bestowing ; and 
when mercies are withdrawn, and sorrows take their place, 
it is equally of His wise, though sometimes mysterious, ap- 
pointment. Seek, like the psalmist, to see your Shepherd's 
guiding hand in all the past, and to retain in the remem- 
brance that best blessing — a thankful heart: thankful 
for small mercies as well as for great ones. As the 
magnet attracts to itself the tiniest iron grain as well 
as the largest, — so the redeemed, regenerated soul, mag- 
netised with the love of God, bears away with it the lively 
remembrance of the smallest tokens of the Divine favour as 
well as the * memories of God's great goodness/ and feels 
that no mercies are unworthy of remembrance, for all are 
undeserved. The proud, worldly, unthankful heart i^ 
never satisfied; — all it has, it takes as a matter of course; — 
and, notwithstanding all it has, it is ever craving for more. 
The thankful heart, on the other hand, baptized with the 
new affections of the gospel, delights to traverse in thought 
the past, and to connect each bright spot in the retrospect 
with the great Bestower of all good ; — saying, in the words 
of him who wrote this psalm, on another of those occasions 
of his life which drew forth the acknowledgment of his 
grateful spirit — "What am I, Lord God, and what is 
my house, that Thou hast brought me hitherto ! M 

This song of God's ransomed flock implies confidence in 
the present "Jehovah, all-sufficient, is my Shepherd/' 

How blessed thus to repose our present in God; and to say, 
as we lie passive in His hands, " Undertake Thou for me!" 



THE SONG OF THE FLOCK. 105 

He portioning out for us as He sees meet, and having His 
own infinite reasons for what may appear perplexing to us. 
We, with an unquestioning and unreasoning faith, fully 
trusting His Shepherd-power, tenderness, skill, vigilance, 
love. He does not consult our short-sighted wisdom in 
what He does. The clouds do not consult the earth as 
to when they shall visit its fruits and flowers — its corn- 
fields and forests, with their watery treasures. The pining 
plant does not dictate to the firmament-reservoirs as to 
when they shall unseal their hidden stores. These give a 
kindly and needful supply "in due season," and the earth 
has never yet, for six thousand years, had to complain of 
them as niggard almoners of their Creator's bounty. So it 
is with the soul : He who maketh the clouds His chariot — 
who opens and shuts at will the windows of heaven — lock- 
ing and unlocking the fountains of the great deep — says to 
all His people, ' Trust ile ; I will give you all needed pre- 
sent blessings ; " I will come unto vou as the rain, as the 
latter and former rain upon the earth." I do not pledge 
myself as to how or when the rain shall fall — but " I will 
cause the shower to come down in his season : there shall 
be showers of blessing/' "As thy day is, so shall thy 
strength be." ' 

Would that we could learn this lesson of entire con- 
fidence in a present, personal God, in whom we live, 
and move, and have our being ! Behold, the sun of the 
natural heavens, the great central luminary — a dumb in- 
sensate mass of matter — holding its dependant planets 
in their orbits, controlling their unerring movements ; — 
they in calm, silent submission, yielding obedience to 



106 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

the will of this sovereign lord : how much more may we 
hold on our way in the orbit of undeviating obedience, 
exulting in God's ever-present power and love; so that in 
the remotest solitude as well as the densest crowd, we can 
say, " 'Alone, yet not alone, for my Father and Shepherd is 
with me!'" 

A necessary result of this confidence in the wisdom of 
God's Shepherd-dealings, will be, contentment with our 
lot whatever it is. We cannot say precisely at what 
time of his eventful life David wrote this psalm ; — 
whether it was amid the splendour of royalty, or when 
a weeping exile amid the glens of Gilead. But he 
seems in it to rise above all outward experiences, — the 
pomp and circumstance of life. " It matters not," he seems 
to say, " what my condition be — crowned or uncrowned — a 
king or an alien; — I have a nobler heritage than, earth can 
give me, or than earth can despoil me of. The Lord is my 
Shepherd, I want nothing?'* A happy, gladsome motto for 
us all, in all time of our tribulation, in all time of our 
wealth. Go to that lowly, despised, downtrodden believer. 
He has lost his worldly substance, his health, his children, 
"Wave on wave of earthly calamity has swept over him ; 
and yet, conscious of some hidden, unexplained " needs 
be," and of a nobler reversion, — he can sing through his 
tears, " I want nothing ! " Aim after this contented 
spirit ; not fretfully murmuring at your present allotments, 
or ambitiously aspiring, after other positions in life, as 
if mere change itself would rid of vexation and augment 

* For thus it may be equally well rendered, though in our version it i3 
in the future tense. 



THE SONG OF THE FLOCK. 107 

happiness. Happiness is dependent, not on place, or sphere, 
or locality, but on the state of the heart. Wherever God 
dwells and holiness exists, there must be contentment and 
peace. As the Christian poet well says : — 

" While place we seek and place we shun, 
The soul finds happiness in none, 
But with a God to guide our way 
'Tis equal joy to go or stay." 

And if we thus confide in God, He will confide in us. 
Beautiful are the words of the prophet — " Thou meetest 
him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness ; those that 
remember thee in thy ways/' Those that remember Thee 
and confide in Thee, "Thou meetest them !" The Lord 
comes out half-way to meet the confiding heart. The 
Shepherd comes out half-way to meet the timorous yet 
confiding sheep. The oltl father comes out half-way to 
meet his prodigal ; and when He does meet him, He has 
the first tear and the first word of welcome. " Thou wilt 
keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee ; 
because he trusteth in Thee !" 

This song of the flock expresses trust for the future. 
" Jehovah, All-sufficient, shall be my Shepherd, I shall not 
want" 

" That dark future!' How many are speaking of it as 
such ! It is in the Shepherd's keeping, and we may well 
leave it there. How beautiful the impress of God's hand 
in the works of outer nature. Every blade of grass, every 
forest leaf, how perfect in symmetry of form, and in tender- 
ness of colour. With what exquisite grace He has pencilled 



108 THE SHEPHERD AXD HIS FLOCK. 

every flower, delicately poised it on its stalk, or spread a 
pillow for its head on the tender sod ! The God who has 
" so clothed the grass of the field/' will not be unmindful 
of the lowliest of His covenant family. 

But we need not go so far as the dumb volume of nature. 
We may open the volume of our own experience. Just as 
the husbandman sees in the flush of green in early spring 
the pledge of a golden harvest, so we may take the 
crowded memories of His shepherd-love in the past, as 
proof, and pledge, and token, that not one thing will fail 
us of all that the Lord our God hath spoken unto the house 
of Israel. We can exultingly add with the psalmist in sub- 
sequent verses, " I will fear no evil. . . . Goodness and 
mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will 
dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." He seems to 
love here, as elsewhere, to sit at these windows of cove- 
nant faithfulness, looking, at one time, back along the 
chequered vista behind him, and then casting a glance 
across the river of death into the shining city. " Good- 
ness and Mercy" the two attendant guardian angels that 
have tracked his footsteps all the bygone way, he sees still 
at his side. Other messengers, other attendant ones may 
have met him on the road. Sorrow, clad in her sombre 
attire ; Bereavement, with her tearful eye ; Pain, with her 
languid countenance. But his joyful contented spirit can 
see none in all the train save two — Goodness and Mercy ! 
In the spirit of the great apostle, he does not give thanks 
only sometimes for some things, but "always for all things." 
His motto seems to be, " I have set the Lord always before 
me." Grateful for the past, he still follows the steps of the 



THE SONG OF THE FLOCK. 109 

guiding Shepherd, — chanting his pilgrim song, " I shall not 
icant !" 

Let us banish all unholy distrust for the future. " Take 
no thought/' (that is to say, Be not over-anxious or over- 
careful) "for the morrow;" that 'morrow' is in the hands 
of One boundless in His resources, infinite in His love. 
Do not charge Him with insincerity when He says, " All 
things work together for good to them that love God ;" 
" Xo ^ood thing will He withhold from them that walk 
uprightly/' If He leads you along a rough and thorny 
road, hear His loving voice thus reassuring your faith and 
lulling your misgivings, ' Your heavenly Shepherd, — your 
heavenly Father, — knoweth that ye have need of all these 
things/ Above all, think of that leading Shepherd as the 
Saviour who died for you; who Himself, as we have pre- 
viously seen, was identified with you as the Man of sor- 
rows, in every earthly experience of sorrow and woe, and 
can enter with exquisite sympathising tenderness into 
every bleat of His weary, suffering flock. He foresees 
and anticipates every emergency that can overtake you. 
He can avert every danger, and disarm every foe. " All 
power has been committed to Him in heaven and in earth." 
Oh, as you may be now surveying the yet untrodden road, 
leading ' uphill and downhill to the city of habitation/ 
remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, " I 
will never leave you, nor forsake you." " Lo I am with 
you alway, even unto the end of the world." 

How many of us can sing this first note of the song of 
the Lord's flock which we have now been considering ? All 



110 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

can do so, who have received the Lord Jesus Christ as their 
Saviour ; — all who have their feet planted on the Rock of 
Ages, and who have closed with the terms of offered cove- 
nant mercy. Can w T e say, " He hath set my feet upon a 
Eock, and put a new song into my mouth, even praise unto 
our God ?" All are warranted to come to that Eock. There 
is no lip that may not learn to sing that song. There is no 
wandering sheep that may not come to crop these heavenly 
pastures. God has made provision not for the strong only, 
but for the weak, the weary, the tempted, the sorrowful, 
the suffering ; all may partake of the Shepherd-love of 
that God, " All sufficient." The feeblest lamb of the flock 
can utter its trembling cry of confiding trust. The same 
Jehovah-Shepherd and Lord — is rich to all that call upon 
Him. The anointing oil of blessing poured on the head of 
the true Aaron flows down to the very skirts of His gar- 
ment, so that the least and lowliest are made partakers 
of His covenant grace. 

Who can give utterance to words akin to those of 
the psalmist regarding any earthly portion ? Who that 
have made the world and pleasure their chief good, can 
say, on the retrospect, "I want nothing ?" Rather, have 
you not to tell of great aching voids in your hearts which 
nothing on earth can fill. If we were to analyse the 
fevered souls to whom these covenant blessings are 
strange, would not this be the confession, perhaps reluc- 
tantly wrung, ' The Lord not being our Shepherd, we want 
everything ; yes, everything that is truly worthy to be 
called a portion ! Our outer life, though thoroughly fur- 
nished with all the world can give it — how empty ! These 



THE SONG OF THE FLOCK. Ill 

gaudy treasures of a vain earth, what a hollow mockery, 
dissevered from the true riches of God's love and favour V 
Let it not be ours to barter these glorious realities for 
things which perish with the using, to return our Shep- 
herd's overtures of kindness with cold indifference, chilling 
unconcern. Be it observed that all the blessings spoken of 
in this song of the old Hebrew minstrel are present bless- 
ings. We do not say that the blessings in reversion — the 
blessings in store, are not greater still ; that the view, across 
that river Jordan, of the green hills of Canaan, opens up 
wondrous revelations of bliss and glory of which we can 
at present form only the feeblest conception. But that 
divine Shepherd-love, with all its concomitant blessings, is 
ours noiv, if we have fled to Christ for safety, and can lay 
hold by faith on God as our covenant God. " We which 
have believed do enter into rest/' "We also joy in God 
through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now re- 
ceived the atonement." Yes, we can sing the Lord's song, 
even in this strange land. We shall indeed meet, (we 
must expect to meet,) with chequered experiences, — sea- 
sons of depression, sorrow, suffering. But we need never 
fear with such a guide. We have an all- sufficient resort 
when our hearts are overwhelmed; — "Give ear, Shep- 
herd of Israel ! thou that leadest Joseph like a flock." And 
when angels come down to our pillows, to bear us away 
from the cloud and the storm, to dwell in the hills of glory, 
we shall carry the old song of the flock on earth, up amid 
the enduring pastures of the blessed : — " The Lord is my 
Shepherd, I shall not want I" 



%\t <$mn ||a8tes anir Still W&tim 
bfym % Jftek are Jxfcr. 



" HE MAKETH ME TO LIE DOWN IN GREEN PASTURES : HE LEADETH ME BESIDS 
THE STILL WATERS/' — PS. XxiiL % 



THE GREEN" PASTURES AND STILL WATERS 
WHERE THE FLOCK ARE EED. 

In the preceding chapter we considered the opening verse, 
what may be called the key-note of David's beautiful pas- 
toral song. There he had given utterance to the negative, 
now he proceeds, under the same shepherd- symbol, to 
speak of the positive blessings belonging to all God's 
people. 

The picture here presented is that which is often wit- 
nessed in our own Highland valleys : a flock of sheep, on a 
summer evening, reposing by the verdant banks of some 
limpid stream : having aroiind them, in abundance, the two 
main requirements of the fold, grass and water. The 
Eastern or Arabian shepherd is known to wander for days 
together along the trackless waste, till he find these re- 
quisite supplies. The greenest grass would be insufficient 
without the stream, and the purest water would be unavail- 
ing, if its course lay through barren moorlands, or among 
rank weeds and naked rocks. 

In these two expressive emblems of this psalm, we have 
brought before us the provision which the Great Shep- 
herd has made for the comfort and nourishment of His 
flock. In other words, the ample supply of grace afforded 
to the believer in the new covenant, to meet all his spiritual 

Vants. " He maketh me to lie down in green pastures," 

u 



114 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

[margin, in the pastures of tender grass] " He leadetli 
me beside the still waters " [or, " the waters of quiet- 
ness."] 

Taking the words in a more general sense, we may 
gather from each of the clauses one or two simple thoughts 
for meditation. 

"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures." 

The first idea suggested is that of rest and security. The 
flock c lie down/ The posture is indicative of perfect re- 
pose. So timid often are' sheep, that to pass by them in a 
meadow is the signal for scattering the whole flock. But 
here every cause or fear of danger seems removed. No 
bleat is heard in all the valley. They are moored, like vessels 
in a quiet sheltered haven, around the feet of the shep- 
herd. 

The life of man, as we were led more specially to notice 
in a former chapter, is a constant striving after rest, repose, 
satisfaction. Many, indeed, are seeking it in base counter- 
feits ; yet even in the counterfeit-search, we detect the as- 
piration after a nobler reality. In the very chasing of the 
shadow we discern the longing after the substance. The 
miser seeks it in his gold ; the ambitious man seeks it as he 
climbs his giddy eminences ; the pleasure-hunter seeks it in 
artificial excitements; the student seeks it in the loftier aspi- 
rations and achievements of his intellectual nature. But true 
rest can be found in God alone. " This is the rest wherewith 
ye may cause the weary to rest ; and this is the refreshing." 
" When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble V 
" He giveth His beloved sleep " (rest.) It is only when we 



THE GREEN PASTURES AND STILL WATERS. 115 

have secured possession of the Divine Shepherd's favour 
and love, pardon and reconciliation through the atoning 
work and merits of Jesus, that we can " lie down!' Short 
of this, there will be a feverish roaming after something 
other, something apparently better, but a something which, 
even when attained, does not and cannot satisfy. Having 
Him for our portion, we need no other. With every long- 
ing of our moral natures answered, we can say, " This is my 
rest for ever." 

A second idea which the figure of " green pastures " sug- 
gests is that of abundant provision. 

Observe it is not one piece of pasture-ground that is here 
spoken of, but "pastures!' There is no scant supply, but 
on the contrary, an ample variety, to suit the circumstances 
of each member of the flock. The sheep may roam from 
field to field, yet still there 4 is enough and to spare. More- 
over, the provision is the best of its kind ; — not rank or 
fading, but young and tender grass, as if eternal spring 
or summer brooded over these meadows. 

What diversity there is in God's spiritual provision for 
His people ! Grace for all times, and every time. Each 
tender blade has its dew-drop of comfort — each pool in " the 
still waters " has its reflection of love. Countless multi- 
tudes have been cropping these pastures in every age, and 
still they are green — evergreen ; and the song of the flock 
is this day what it has been for 3000 years — "The Lord is 
my shepherd, I want nothing!' How specially is this true 
of the pastures of God's holy Word ! What variety have we 
here ; doctrine, precept, promise, comfort, consolation, yea, 
u everlasting consolation." At no time are these pastures 



116 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

greener to us than in seasons of sorrow; when the world's 
pastures are burnt up, and its choicest nooks and valleys 
— those that were wont to be carpeted with flowers and 
bathed in sunshine — can offer no refreshment or repose. 
" The grass wi there th, the flower fadeth, but the Word of 
our God shall stand for ever!' 

Let us pass to the second part of the verse — " He lead- 
eth me beside the still waters. " " Still waters ! " These words 
appear to convey, under another figure and symbol, a de- 
scription just of the same calm and hallowed repose, secured 
to the believer, which the psalmist had in his mind in the 
preceding clause : — the soul kept in perfect peace, which 
is stayed on God. The wicked are compared to the " troubled 
sea/' But this is an inland river, — a quiet, gentle stream, 
protected from the boisterous winds which fret the ocean to 
madness. Strange, indeed, often is the history of the soul 
before it attains that divine repose ; fierce are its struggles 
before there ensues the calm of victory and rest. Like the 
patriarch at Jabbok ere he secured the change of name and 
the divine blessing, it has oft-times a long night of wrestling 
before the dawning of the day. You may have witnessed 
such a peaceful meadow as that described by the psalmist 
of Tsrael, with its quiet, lake-like stream ; so still, that not 
a ripple bedims its surface; every rock, and sedge, and 
spear of grass, which fringe its banks, beautifully mirrored 
in the surface. Yet follow that same river up these moun- 
tain ravines, and you see it fretting and foaming over rug- 
ged rocks, hurrying impetuously down to where it now 
sleeps so calmly in the lower valley ! That is a picture of 



THE GREEN PASTURES AND STILL WATERS. 117 

the often long unrest of the soul, ere it has found the peace 
which passeth understanding; its struggles with inward 
corruption and outward temptation; the fierce eddying 
currents and impetuous cataracts of passion and sin, ere it 
secure its glorious repose in God. Not till it reaches these 
quiet meadows, with their green pastures, which we have 
been now describing, can it say — " Return unto thy rest, 
my soul /" 

Here, too, as in the former figure, we have the abun- 
dance of God's mercies set forth'; not only varied pastures 
but varied ivaters. The blessings of grace are not like the 
Nile, one solitary river which receives no tributary all the 
nine hundred miles it traverses. They are rather like the 
Jordan, fed by a hundred rills, as it hurries through its 
rocky gorges. Many streams only flow in winter or 
spring. When summer comes (the time they are most 
needed) their channels are dry. But these " still waters " 
are full even in drought, for they are fed from the everlasting 
hills. When the world's streams are emptiest, the streams 
of grace are deepest and most ample. " The Lord," says 
the prophet, " shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy 
soul in drought, and make fat thy bones; and thou shalt 
be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose 
waters fail not." We have streams of peace, of purity,, 
of pardon, of sanctification, — all exceeding great and pre- 
cious. Look at the exuberance of God's mercies in the 
outer creation. Go to some sequestered nook of tangled 
loveliness, by brook, or waterfall, or sequestered dell. 
Study for an hour that one page in the volume of nature, 
taking the microscope with you to help you in the task. 



118 THE SHEPHEED AND HIS FLOCK. 

How wondrous the tints ! How symmetrical the forms ! 
How lavish the garniture of the tiny worlds of animated 
being which the lens discloses ! It is a feeble type of the 
exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness toward us 
through Christ Jesus. "Oh, how great is Thy goodness 
■which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee, which 
Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee, before the 
sons of men ! " 

We may conclude with the reflection suggested by both 
clauses, that Religion is happiness. 

The loveliest emblems in nature, " green pastures " and 
" still waters," are here combined to symbolise the experi- 
ences, and depict the reality of the believer's life. The 
world has its pleasures too, and we do not affirm that they 
are devoid of attractiveness. Had this been the case, they 
would not be so fondly and eagerly clung to as they are. 
But this we can affirm, that while they are certain, sooner 
or later, to perish, they are fitful and capricious even while 
they last. They are sand-built, not rock-built. They are, 
at best, but the passing gleam of the meteor ; not like the 
Christian's happiness, the steady lustre of the true constel- 
lation. The joys of the true believer outlive all others. 
Religion is like a castle on a mountain summit, catching 
the earliest sunbeam, and gilded by the last evening ray. 
When low down in the world's valleys, the shadows are 
falling, and the lights are already in the windows, the radi- 
ance still tarries on these lofty peaks of gladness. That 
castle, moreover, is full of all maimer of store. God has 
furnished it with every attractive blessing that can invite 



THE. GREEN PASTURES AND STILL WATERS. 119 

the weary wanderer in. He has crowded it with love- 
tokens, wherewith He may welcome back His long-absent 
children; — just as a mother decks out her room for her 
absent boy; as every available nook is made gay with 
flowers and embroidery, crowded with souvenirs of affec- 
tion, so God has fdled that castle with love-pledges. Its 
walls are tapestried with proofs and promises of His grace 
and love in Jesus. 

Go, wandering one, enter within these gates ! Test for 
yourself the reality of the divine assurance — " The name 
of the Lord is . a strong tower, the righteous runneth into 
it and is safe/' Go, wandering sheep ! make proof of the 
truthfulness as well as beauty of the symbol under which 
the spiritual existence is here presented — as a reclining 
on green pastures, and by still waters. Go, take your 
rest in those meadows *of peace. Not, however, a rest of 
inglorious repose. It is rest in God; rest in the blessed 
assurance of His favour. But it is not rest from the 
activities of a holy life. It is not rest or respite from 
a perpetual battle with sin. Christianity, w r e have pre- 
viously .seen, is no condition of selfish inaction. The be- 
liever is a steward, a servant, a worker, a member of that 
royal priesthood who have each their special ministry of 
duty and love in the spiritual temple. Header, let this 
rest be yours, the pure rest which follows the consciousness 
of doing good, — of discharging some lowly unobtrusive 
offices of love to the Shepherd of souls. We value most 
the rest of the body when it is the recompense of hard 
work and toil. He sleeps most sweetly who has worked 
through the day most bravely. Have you never felt the 



120 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

sweets of this rest ? the pleasurableness experienced after 
some act of kindness, and compassion, and generous self- 
sacrifice, by which your fellows have been made the bet- 
ter and the happier, and in the doing of which you have 
been enabled in some feeble degree to imitate the example 
of Him whose life was a combination of duty and love ? 
If these deeds are performed quietly and unostentatiously, 
so much more is it in accordance with the spirit of 
Christianity, and with the spirit of the emblem we have 
been now considering : — the still waters, fringed with 
green, flowing gently, noiselessly, unobtrusively along, 
manifesting their presence only by the fertility they spread 
around them. Beautiful picture of the true Christian ! 
the silent flow of life's every-day current, carrying bless- 
ings in its course, fertilising as it flows ; leaving behind, 
and on either side, the green margin of faith and love, 
kindness and benignity, charity and unselfishness. Still 
waters indicate depth. It is the shallow stream that 
makes the pretentious noise, gurgling and fretting along 
its pebbly channel. True religion is too real to be noisy. 
Its characteristic is deep principle, not fitful ecstacies. It 
is in grace as in nature : the gentle dew distils on the 
tender grass : the gentle rain feeds the mountain streams, 
and these imperceptibly feed the still waters in the lower 
meadows. 

Blessed resort, this sheltered valley of Christ's repose- 
ful love ! Hear Him calling you, as He utters the invita- 
tion, " Come unto me, and I will give you rest/' Having 
found the Shepherd of these green pastures and still 
waters, dread everything that would lead you away from 



THE GREEN PASTURES AND STILL WATERS. 121 

Him, and forfeit the possession of His favour and regard. 
It is the short but touching epitaph frequently seen in the 
catacombs at Eome, u In Christo, in pace' — (" In Christ, 
in peace'') Realise the constant presence of the Shepherd 
of peace. " He maketh me to lie down ! " " He leadeth me l" 
Be ever near these waters of quietness. Let the current of 
your daily walk and business run side by side with the 
heavenly stream. In the world you may and must be. " In 
the world;' says He, " ye shall have tribulation, but in Me 
ye shall have peace." And when you come to die, others 
may speak of the surges of death, and the swellings of Jor- 
dan, but to you it will only be, under the guidance of the 
great Precursor, a transit through the border-stream, to the 
better meadows and better Canaan beyond. " When thou 
passest through the waters I will be with thee." You w 7 ill 
be borne through them in the arms of the Shepherd, to 
rest evermore in the celestial pastures, and to drink ever- 
more of the rivers of His pleasure. 



% Jfkdi ait Jjxtr. 



"he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness."— ps. xxiii. 3. 



THE PATHS OF PJGHTEOUSXESS IN WHICH 
THE FLOCK AEE LED. 

There is a world of comfort contained in the simple 
words, " He leadeth me/' As we have already had occa- 
sion more than once to note in adverting to the same 
pastoral figure, our lives are no fortuitous concurrence 
of events and circumstances; — we are not like weeds 
thrown in the waters, to be tossed and whirled in the 
eddying pools of capricious accident and chance, our future 
a self-appointed one. There is a Divine hand and purpose 
in all that befalls us. Every man's existence is a bio- 
graphy, written chapter by chapter, line by line, by God 
Himself. It is not the mere cartoon or outline sketched 
by the Divine Being, which we are left to fill in ; but 
all the minute and delicate shadings are inserted by Him. 
Looking no farther than our relation to Him as creatures, 
it is impossible for a moment to entertain the thought of 
our being beyond the leadings of God, and to speak of a 
life ot self-government and self-dependence. The com- 
plex machinery of the outer world, dumb inanimate nature 
in all its integral parts, is upheld by Him. "He weigheth 
the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance.'' " He 
counts the number of the stars." He guides Orion and 
Arcturus in their magnificent marchings. If one of these 
orbs were to be jostled from its place — plucked from its 



J 24 THE SHEPHEED AND HIS FLOCK. 

silent throne in the heavens, it is well known that the 
equipoise and nice balancing of the material system would 
be fatally disturbed — anarchy and revolution would reign 
triumphant. And shall we own Him as the leader of stars 
and planets, and ignore His sovereignty over the human 
spirit ? Shall we acknowledge that He is Lord in the uni- 
verse of matter and not supreme in the empire of thought 
and human volition? Nay, "His kingdom ruleth over 
ALL." Angel, archangel, cherub and seraph ; man, beast, 
worm, " these all wait upon Thee ! " 

But it is not the doctrine of God's general sovereignty 
which in the verse selected for meditation we are called to 
contemplate. It is as the Shepherd-leader of His ransomed 
flock, and the manner and method of His leading : " He 
leadeth me in the path of righteousness." 

Not only does this proclaim that T am the object of a 
thought in God's heart, but a loving thought. It is the 
Shepherd intent on some loving purpose, in every intricate 
turn of the winding path. Ah ! we know, at times, there is 
nothing more difficult to believe than this. " AYhat !" we say, 
" God leading me as a shepherd, and leading me in righte- 
ousness ! How can I reconcile, with all this, so much that 
is startling and perplexing alike in my own experience 
and in the world around me, where I see vice pampered 
and virtue trampled under foot ? There is a man, proud, 
niggardly, profligate, worthless; an extortioner, the op- 
pressor of the poor. God is leading him along one of the 
world's smiling paths ; elevating him to positions of influ- 
ence and distinction; fame sounding her brazen trumpet 
before him ; — while yonder is a man of sterling integrity 



THE PATHS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 125 

and worth, of high honour and boundless philanthropy — 
the friend of the friendless — his open hand keeping pace 
with his generous heart, who can tell of quite a diverse ex- 
perience. What can it be but wayward capricious fortune 
that has dandled on its knees him who is thus worthless 
and mean-souled, and left the other in some luckless mo- 
ment, stripped and beggared ; disappointing his hopes, 
cropping the wings of honourable ambition, spoiling him 
of his goods, dashing his ships on the rocks, baring his 
walls, and leaving his children penniless ? " ' Can that ' 
(another will say) — ' can that be the path of righteousness, 
that path which echoes to the mournful tramp of the fune- 
ral crowd, as some ]oved one is borne to the long home ? 
My innocent babe is snatched away ; oh, why take the 
green and spare the ripe ? Might He not rather have 
taken the old gnarled, decrepit tree, with its hollow trunk 
scathed with the storms of years ? Might He not rather 
have taken the rose with its spent and withered leaves 
ready to drop to the ground ? Why has He plucked the 
opening bud ; left old age with its crutches, and despoiled 
the cradle of its smiles ? ' 

Hush these Atheist thoughts, — away with these un- 
worthy surmises. He "leads in righteousness." He has 
an Infinite reason for all He does. It is not for us to 
attempt to unravel the tangled thread of Providence. 
God is often, like Jacob of old, blessing the sons of Joseph 
with crossed hands. We, in our half-blind, short-sighted 
faith, would presume to dictate to Him, and prejudge the 
wisdom and rectitude of His procedure. We are tempted 
to say with Joseph, " Not so, my father." But like tLa 



126 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

old patriarch, " He guides His hands wittingly." As the 
sheep of His pasture, He may not be leading you along 
the bright meadow or sunny slope ; He may be lingering 
amid stunted herbage; He may be turning down some 
bramble thicket, — plunging into gloomy forest glades, while 
acres of rich sunny pasture are close at hand. But He 
sees, what you did not see ; He sees an adder here ; He 
sees a lion there ; He sees pitfalls here ; He sees a preci- 
pice there. He knows you better, He loves you better, 
than to set you in slippery places, and cast you down to 
destruction. He sees, if that fortune had been unbroken, 
that dream of ambition realised, that clay-idol unde- 
throned, — the alienated heart would have gradually, but 
terribly, lapsed away from Him. Trust Him. In the 
midst of perplexing dealings say, " I know'' (you cannot 
say " I. see") but let faith say, " I know, God, that Thy 
judgments are right, and that Thou in faithfulness hast 
afflicted me." It is covenant love that guides you. If you 
are led up the mountain summits of worldly distinction 
and honour and prosperity, He leadeth you ; if along the 
lowly valleys of obscurity and poverty, humiliation and 
sorrow, He leadeth you. Your life is a plan of the great 
God ; and this is the leading element in the plan, " Be- 
loved, I wish above all things that thou may est prosper and 
be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." Health, sick- 
ness, joy, sorrow, successes, reverses, worldly honours, 
worldly humiliations, receiving, surrendering, suffering, 
losing ; — in all these, He has in view your soul-prosperity. 
Better not a rood of this world if the guiding Shepherd be 
with you, than all its broad acres without Him, Better the 



THE PATHS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 127 

wasted barrel and the handful of meal, with God, than the 
full cup and gilded ceilings without Him. Better Lazarus 
with his crumbs, and his hope of glory, than Dives with 
his purple, and dainty board, and no heaven ! Better yon- 
der chained prisoner in the Mamertine, than Nero in 
his Quirinal palace. The one was the world's undisputed 
master, with his foot on the neck of subject millions ; the 
other was an outcast Jew, — a sheep, without fold or pasture 
on earth which he could call his own ; — yet to his guiding 
Shepherd he could say, "I have all and abound!" .... 
" All men forsook me, notwithstanding the Lord stood with 
me and strengthened me, and I was delivered out of the 
mouth of the lion." We own it, that these gracious lead- 
ings are often not discernible. We cannot understand His 
judgments, they are a deep, " a great deep." You may 
have seen the sombre mountains which descend in abrupt 
shelving masses into some of our peaceful Highland lakes. 
Their bases are lost in the unsounded depths of that still 
mirror ; we see their trembling reflections, no more. But 
the mountains themselves are patent to view. So, if we 
cannot discern or understand God's judgments, let us ac- 
knowledge the " righteousness" which directs them. Let 
us say in adoring reverence with the psalmist, who seems 
to have had this beautiful image in his eye, — " Thy right- 
. eousness is as the great mountains, Thy judgments are a 
great deep." 

What a grandeur and dignity, what a safety and security 
it would give to life, if we sought ever to regard it as a 
leading of the Shepherd ; — God shaping our purposes and 
destinies, that wherever we go, or wherever our friends 



128 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

go, He is with us ! Even in earthly journeyings, if our 
pathway be the great and wide sea,- — " He gives to the sea 
His decree" — winds and waves and storms are the Shep- 
herd's voice. If it be careering along the highway, 
nothing but that tiny iron thread between us and death, — 
He curbs the wild frenzy of the fiery courser ; He puts 
the bit in his iron mouth ; He gives His angels charge 
over us to bear us up and keep us in all our ways. If it 
be our position in the world ; He metes out every drop in 
the cup, He assigns us our niche in His temple, fills or 
empties our coffers, makes vacant the chairs of our home- 
steads. But " He leadeth us!" He will yet be His own 
interpreter. We can take no more than the near, the 
limited, the earthly view of His dealings : let us pause for 
the infinite disclosures of eternity. Look at the husband- 
man labouring in his field. All this deep ploughing is for 
the insertion of the needful seed. In doing the work, he 
may appear to act roughly. Ten thousand insects nestling 
quietly in their homes in the ground are rudely unhoused. 
All at once, their ceiled dwellings are pulled asunder. 
Many a happy commonwealth is scattered and overthrown 
in the upturned furrow, — little worlds of life and being 
demolished by the ruthless, remorseless ploughshare. So, 
some of our earthly schemes may be assailed and pillaged, 
— our staff and beautiful rods broken, — our worldly trea- 
sures scattered by the iron teeth of misfortune. But all is 
preparatory to a higher good, a harvest of rich blessing 
crowning the soul, as He does the year with His goodness 
and making its paths drop fatness ! 



THE PATHS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 129 

Let us, finally, learn the lesson of our entire dependence 
on our Shepherd Leader, and our need of His grace in pro- 
secuting the path of the spiritual life. God had just taken 
some means to revive and quicken that life in the soul of 
the psalmist, ' 'He restoreth my soul." Thus restored, he clings 
with greater ardour than before to the great Eestorer. He is 
more keenly alive to his indebtedness to Him for keep- 
ing in healthful energy every spiritual grace. His feeling 
is not "I am revived, and restored, and quickened, I shall 
be able now manfully to pursue my own way." The next 
note in his song, after telling of God's reviving grace, is to 
exult in God's sustaining grace — "He leadeth me in the 
paths of righteousness" Eeader, make it your prayer to 
this "God of all grace" "Hold up my goings in Thy paths, 
that my footsteps slip not :" " Lead me in the way ever- 
lasting!" And He will dead you — He will keep you. 
"The Lord is thy keeper, thy stay, and thy strength, on 
thy right hand." That path is an onward path of blessed- 
ness and peace. It is written, " The righteous shall hold 
on his way" Eejoice then, ye sheep of God ! ye shall 
never perish. All creation may become bankrupt; earth 
may lock up her furrows, and seasons refuse to revolve; 
the sun (heaven s great lamp) may be extinguished, and 
the stars rush from their orbits; — but the Lord will never 
fail to be, to His people, their " Sun and Shield," giving 
them "grace and glory." 

Meanwhile be it yours to follow after that holiness — that 
" righteousness " — -without which no man can see the Lord. 
Walk day by day, under the guidance and guardianship 
of your Shepherd; and in the conscious possession of His 

I 



130 THE SHEPHERD AXD HIS FLOCK. 

love, you must be happy. Trials will turn iftto mercies ; 
sorrows will "be transmuted into joys; losses will be re- 
solved into gains. You will sleep, like the little child 
through the night of storm, when he feels his parent's 
hand locked in his. In the very darkest of human 
hours ; — when the wind is sweeping and sighing through 
the trackless forest : when the tempest has shrouded moon 
and stars, and you are getting deeper and deeper amid the 
intricacies of entangling thickets ; — with such a Guide, 
Protector, Friend, you need fear no evil. In the words of 
Ezekiel, you can "dwell securely in the wilderness, and 
sleep in the woods." And when the morning breaks — the 
bright morning of heaven; — when the earthly path is at an 
end, and you attain the sunlit summit of the everlasting- 
hills, you will be able to retrace, with adoring gratitude, 
all its windings. The retrospect will afford material for a 
twofold song — the Song of Providence and the Song of 
Grace. You will sing " the Song of Moses ; the servant of 
God, and the Song of the Lamb/' 



Clje Sljepljertr Seehhtg % Jfloxk m 
tbe Ckutm atrtr Bark Ban, 



f AS A SHEPHERD SEEKETH OUT HIS FLOCK IN THE DAT THAT HE IS AMONG 
HIS SHEEP THAT ARE SCATTERED; SO WILL I SEEK OUT MY SHEEP, AND 
WILL DELIVER THEM OUT OP ALL PLACES WHERE THEY HATE BEEN 
SCATTERED IN THE CLOUDY AND DARK DAY. ... I WILL SEEK THAT WHICH 
WAS LOST, AND BRING AGAIN THAT WHICH WAS DRIVEN AWAY, AND WILL 
BIND UP THAT WHICH WAS BROKEN, AND WILL STRENGTHEN THAT WHICH 
WAS SICK : BUT I WILL DESTROY THE FAT AND THE STRONG; I WILL FEED 
THEM WITH JUDGMENT." — EZEK. XXXIY. 12, 16. 



THE SHEPHEED SEEKING THE FLOCK IX THE 
CLOUDY AND DAEK DAY. 

In the closing sentences of the preceding chapter, we indi- 
cated the possibility of a change in the experience of the 
believer — such as that which is now to form the theme for 
consideration. 

In the first of the two verses above selected, th^re is laid, 
as it were, the scene of this new pastoral picture. Dark 
clouds are represented, brooding over the landscape; the 
thunder has burst over the valleys — and the sheep are scat- 
tered here and there over the gloomy mountains. Some 
are entangled in the brakes, — some are lost in the misty 
shrouds, filling the hollows, — some are lying bleeding and 
wounded, at the foot of the precipices over which they 
have fallen. But wanderers and panic-stricken as they 
are, they are not forsaken. Amid wind and storm, the 
watchful eye of their Shepherd follows them ; and, under 
new symbols, we have a fresh and tender unfolding of His 
loving dealings. 

Let us briefly consider, in their order, the fourfold clas- 
sification here given of the scattered sheep: The lost, and 
the driven away: the broken, and the sick. Thus separately 
grouped, we have a figurative description of the two ele- 
ments of Sin and Sorrow, which, in the experience of the 
flock of God, still give rise to "the cloudy and dark day." 



134 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

The first in this enumeration are " the lost." 
It is not necessary that we attach to this term the 
meaning it has in other passages already considered — as 
denoting the Shepherd's first finding of " the lost sheep/' 
— the first rescue of the sinner from his state of condem- 
nation and death. We may rather now cursorily notice it 
as referring, to what will afterwards form the theme of a 
separate chapter — Christ's dealing with backsliders ; — tru- 
ants, who, it maybe, have long known the peace and secu- 
rity of the Fold, — but who, by their own hapless estrange- 
ment, have forfeited, for a time, alike their happiness 
and safety. Moreover, we may here regard the figure 
as descriptive of those who, by little and little, (by im- 
perceptible degrees,) have erred and strayed from the 
Shepherd's fold and presence ; those who, to use a differ- 
ent Scripture figure, once did " run well," but who have 
been "hindered." Once their landscape was bathed in 
sunshine; — the mountain-tops of God's faithfulness were 
clear; — the summits of the heavenly hills sparkled glori- 
ously ; — theirs were the green pastures and still waters, — 
the Shepherd's voice . to cheer them, and the Shepherd's 
steps to guide them. But all is gloomy now ; — the storm- 
clouds have gathered in their once serene sky. The sun 
cannot disperse, as formerly, these floating vapours ; they 
look around for their Shepherd — He is gone ; for the fold 
— it is hidden in mist and fog ; farther and yet farther 
they stray — going on, in the words of Jeremiah, " from 
mountain to hill ;" but the clouds only seem to gather, and 
the distance and alienation to increase. And yet, to ac- 
count for their wandering, there may be no very specific 



THE CLOUDY AND DARK DAY. 135 

cause, no bold presumptuous sin. It may arise from their 
own sluggish unconcern; — a drowsy, sleepy, callous frame, — 
the result of a gradual, but ever-deepening insensibility to 
divine, things ; — a trifling with their spiritual interests ; — 
languor in prayer — conformity with the world — tampering 
with sins of omission — venturing on forbidden or debate- 
able ground. The issue, at all events, has been a painful, 
conscious distance from God. Behold them now among 
the scattered flock, in " the cloudy and dark day ! " 

The- second class described by the prophet are those who 
are " dpjvex away." These have more marked and dis- 
tinctive characteristics. Some OA^ert act has been the 
cause of their scattering. Look at David as an illustra- 
tion. One of the. choicest of the flock of God, feeding on the 
richest pasture, he was in one guilty moment thus " driven 
atvay" a wanderer on th§ dark mountains. "Driven 
away ! " His own guilty passion was the lash that drove 
him from his Shepherd's presence and love. His own ini- 
quities separated between him and his God. He never 
after was the joyous believer he once was. He was indeed 
restored, pardoned, loved; — but the memory of that sad 
day followed him to the grave, and mantled his whole 
moral landscape with clouds, even to the very entrance of 
the dark valley. 

And how many among the true flock of the Shepherd 
have to tell a similar mournful tale ! Some one guilty deed 
has laid the foundation of weeks and months — ay, years, 
of spiritual alienation and distance from the fold. The in- 
dulgence of a forbidden sin — a guilty companionship — an 
ungodly marriage — a resisting or wounding of conscience 



136 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK 

— a rejection of God's providential leadings. One or any 
of these may be the beginning of fatal disaster. How 
many a youth of fair promise — to take one example, — has 
been "driven away" by evil companions! His opening 
years were bright with spiritual promise. The earliest 
psalm, it may be, his infant lips had been taught to utter 
was the psalm of the green pastures and still waters, and 
death's dark vale illumined with the Shepherd's presence; 
and his childhood's vow — the echo of a mother's prayers 
and tears, was, that from that fold he would never wander. 
But the siren voice, in a hapless moment, stole upon his 
ear, and smothered his better and nobler resolves. A 
godless associate smiled at his conscientious scruples, 
and mocked his superstitious fears. The forbidden path 
of wandering once entered, — the clear sunlight of truth 
and a quiet conscience obscured, — he was soon lost amid 
the mazy fogs of sin. Driven away by his own guilty forget- 
fulness of home-teachings and Bible warnings, and of all 
the fond memories of a childhood and youth of innocence 
and peace — behold him now, a wreck on a stormy ocean, a 
shattered, wounded, fleece-torn sheep, in the " cloudy and 
dark day ! " 

Thus much for 'the scattered' in the cloudy and dark 
day of sin. We come now to speak of the dark and cloudy 
day of sorrow. 

The first of the latter class here described, are "the 
broken." How numerous are these ! Many of us in the 
midst of our bright enjoyments — our green and verdant 
pastures — our full cup — our uninvaded circles — are apt to 
ignore altogether the existence of breaking and broken 



THE CLOUDY AND DARK DAY, 1 37 

hearts. We see the sunny hill- side, covered with sheep, 
feeding in reposeful security under the Shepherd's care, — 
morning by morning, listening to the dulcet tones of the 
mountain-pipe, — at evening quietly penned — protected 
from summer's draught and winter's cold. But we are 
apt to forget that the world is not all sunshine ; — that 
there are members of the fold scattered by the wild winds 
of misfortune — lying wounded and broken — having no joy, 
no pasture, no rest. Some are " broken" by calamity ; — 
penury scattering them in its cloudy and dark day. Some 
are " broken " by bitter disappointment ; an aching heart- 
wound too sacred to be revealed, has left them bleed- 
ing and desolate, refusing to be comforted. Some are 
" broken "by bereavement. The mother has the bleating 
lamb plucked from her bosom, — and the lamb goes bleat- 
ing after the mother she cannot find; — all the wealth of 
the living fold is nothing to either, because of those " who 
are not." 

We have still another class in the cloudy day of suffer- 
ing and sorrow. They are the sick. 

We might take this in a figurative sense ; as descriptive 
of those who are sick at heart, — sad and disconsolate with 
the trials, and sins, and sorrows of earth, and with the 
corruptions of their own natures. But why not regard it 
literally, as applied to those laid on beds of sickness? 
Many among us who inadequately appreciate the talent of 
health, are apt also to forget and overlook this large section 
in God's world ;— the "poor afflicted ones," the maimed 
members of the flock, — who with drooping heads, and wan 
countenance, loathe the richest pastures, and can get no 



138 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

rest or ease in the choicest fold; — whose inward wail is 
heard in the long hours of wakeful darkness, — "would 
Gocl it were evening ; and in the evening, would God it 
were morning ; " — pining flowers, around whom the sun 
shines, and the rain descends, and the birds sing in vain: 
the enervated body exercising a like depressing influ- 
ence on the mind : the gloomy sameness and silence of 
the sick-chamber tinging the whole life with inveterate 
sadness. 

To one and all of these cases — to one and all of these 
" scattered ones " — the Great Shepherd conies. Yes ! in 
the cloudy and dark day — the day He is most ^needed — 
<( lo ! He cometh, leaping upon the mountains." 

He has a special word of comfort for each separate case. 

" Lost ! " He " seeks " you. Though you have forgot- 
ten Him, He has not forgotten you. "A voice. was heard 
upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the 
children of Israel : for they have perverted their way, and 
they have forgotten the Lord their God. Return, ye back- 
sliding children, and I will heal your backslidings ! " 

Ye who have been " driven away" He will " bring you 
again." Ye who, like the Psalmist of Israel, have unwarily 
left the pastures of peace and security, and entangled 
yourselves in the midnight forest of danger and sin; — the 
lion may have you in his fangs, but the grace of Him who 
first brought you to tliQ fold, is able to bring you back 
again, and restore to you the joys of His salvation. Hear 
His own words by the mouth of His prophet, veiled under 
the favourite Shepherd-symbol, and in which He mingles 
judgment with mercy in the restoration of. the erring: — 



THE CLOUDY AND DARK DAY. 139 

cf I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great 
drought. According to their pasture, so were .they filled; 
they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore 
have they forgotten me. Therefore I will be unto them as 
a lion - as a leopard by the way will I observe them : I 
will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, 
and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I 
devour them like a lion : the wild beast shall tear them. 
Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in vie is thine 
help:' 

Broken ones ! Ye who are crushed and mutilated by 
the thousand ills of suffering and sorrow : rejoice ! That 
Shepherd came to "bind up" breaking hearts; His name 
is "The Healer of the broken-hearted." His life was a 
grand living comment on this the first text and oiienino: 
sermon of His ministry.* AYeeping eyes and woe-worn 
spirits were ever following the wake of this mighty Yes- 
sel of mercy. The stranded, hapless barks on the world's 
shores He loved to set floating on the ever-flowing tide of 
His compassion. This was the motto of His life : it is 
the description of His ever-living love at this hour — "He 
healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds/' 

" Sick ! " Ye pining sufferers in earth's great hos- 
pital ! Ye bleating sheep, lying languid and helpless in 
the fold — He, the Great Shepherd, comes to " strengthen 
you." A sick-bed — where the noisy world is shut out — • 
where its cares, and anxieties, and aspirations, and ambi- 
tions are no longer present to hamper and harass — what a 
blessed season for converse with the Infinite : — Then does 
the Shepherd of Israel specially love to come to the weak 



140 THE SHEPHEKD AND HIS FLOCK. 

and weary with better than the balm of Gilead ; — fulfilling 
in the case of many " sick ones whom He loves," His 
own promise — " The Lord will strengthen him on the bed 
of languishing/' 

And in all this, let lis mark the gracious adaptation of 
Christ's dealings to the different wants, and trials, and 
necessities of His people. He "seeks" the lost; and on 
finding them, a look of love suffices to bring the conscience- 
stricken wanderers back. He " brings again " the driven 
away. Those cowering in terror at their own wilful blind- 
ness and apostasy, their deep ingratitude and heinous 
guilt, need help, encouragement, guidance; — they need 
being carried in the Shepherd's arms. Peter dreads to 
meet the Lord He has so injured; but He "brings him 
again," first with a gentle message, and then with a gentle 
w T ord. He " binds up " the broken ; He stanches the 
bleeding wound with the application of tender restoratives 
— the balm-words of His own exceeding great and precious 
promises. He, the Brother born for adversity, teaches the 
wounded spirit, as He alone can, how to "bear" in this 
"dark and cloudy day;" He turns the shadow of death 
into the morning. He "strengthens" the sick — those who 
for years on years have been laid on couches of lan- 
guishing — secluded from the gladsome light of day, on 
whose ear the tones of the Sabbath bell fall only to tell of 
forfeited privileges. They can best bear attestation, how 
a mysterious, sustaining strength, not their own, is im- 
parted to them, which makes them wonders to themselves. 
Indeed, were we to go in search of the most touching proof 
of the Shepherd-Eedeemer's upholding grace, it would be 



THE CLOUDY AND DARK "DAY. 141 

to the chamber of that wan and sickly sufferer. See him 
bowed down with paroxysms of excruciating pain; — the 
iron ploughshare leaving deep furrows on his cheek, and 
banishing sleep from his pillow, — yet all the time, while 
the cold drops are standing on his brow, and every nerve 
has become a chord of agony — no murmur escapes his 
lips. See how patience has her perfect work. Hear how 
the prayer trembles on his lips — "Father, Thy will be 
done ! " And say, can this be his own strength ? Xo, 
it is the Shepherd coming with healing balm to the 
prostrate sheep of His fold. It is supporting grace given 
for the day of suffering. It is the Lord coming to the 
couch of languishing, and, in the expressive words of 
Scripture, u making all his bed in his sickness/' There 
is no more beautiful study either in Holy Scripture or in 
the Scripture of experience, than this diversity of dealing 
on the part of God towards His people; — His wise and 
discriminating treatment of each case, according to what 
He sees they require. It is said of some oriental kings, 
that they never appear in the same garment to those who 
seek an audience. Moreover, that whatever be the gar- 
ment in which they are attired themselves, their attend- 
ants have a duplicate gift ready to present to the 
stranger or supplicant. It is even so with the Shepherd- 
King of Israel ! He ever comes to His needy people, ar- 
rayed in the garb of some new promise or specially 
adapted blessing. He comes with the robe of righteous- 
ness to the spiritually naked. He comes with a garment 
of healing for the bruised and broken. He comes with 
the garment of praise for a spirit of heaviness. For 



142 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

every sorrowing thought of the heart He has a counterpart 
and corresponding comfort : " In the multitude of my 
thoughts within me," says the Psalmist, "Thy comforts 
delight my soul." It is not one fountain only, but 
"springs" of water, the Shepherd has for His flock; — ac- 
cording to the beautiful description of the Prophet Isaiah 
— " They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be 
in all high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst ; 
neither shall the heat nor sun smite them : for he that 
hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs 
of water shall he guide them/' 

Let us close with two practical reflections. 

The first is a consoling one — the all- sufficiency of the 
Shepherd's power and love. There is no case He cannot 
meet. Lost ones, driven ones, broken ones, sick ones. It 
seems to exhaust the circle of human wants and necessities. 
He seems to anticipate every supposable case, so that none 
dare say "that Shepherd-love does not include me." It 
reminds us of that wondrous expression of the Great Apostle 
— that verse with its grand redundancy of words — its signi- 
ficant and touching tautology — " Now unto Him that is 
able to do exceeding abundantly, above all that we ask or 
think." See how the gradation rises. See how he mounts 
to his magnificent climax. What a golden ladder is this 
verse ! Christ is "able to do" — Christ is "able to do abun- 
dantly" — Christ is "able to do abundantly, above all that we 
ask or think." And then, as if he had not unburdened his 
soul of the full truth, the "goodly matter" his heart was 



THE CLOUDY AND DARK DAY. 143 

inditing, lie adds another stone to the pyramid — " Exceed- 
ing abundantly, above all that we ask or think/' Eejoice 
in such a full Saviour as this, sufficient for all temporal 
and all spiritual necessities; who can bind up the broken 
body; who can bind up the broken soul; ease the aching 
head, and quiet the aching spirit ; who can reclaim the 
wandering and save the lost. What earthly friend can 
help us so ? Who else, save He, can fill with His presence 
and love the gap in the sorrow-stricken heart ? But He 
can; He does ! Lover and friend may be put far from us; 
all we once cherished and doated on may be smitten with 
inevitable change ; the roof where childhood revelled may 
be a heap of ruins, or habited by strangers ; the trees, 
under whose shadow we reposed, may have long been felled 
to the ground; the parents' arms that clasped us as we 
lisped our infant prayev, or which smoothed our pillows 
in sickness, may be mouldering in the dust; voices 
that cheered us on the pilgrimage, may be hushed in 
awful silence. But here is One who is Father, Brother, 
Physician, Friend, Shepherd, Home, All ! No one can fell 
the Tree of life ! No storm can overturn that Home of un- 
blighted love ! No envious whisper can estrange that true 
Friend ! No King of terrors can paralyse the Everlasting 
Arms! "The Lord liveth, and blessed be my Bock, and 
let the God of my salvation be exalted." Oh, blessed it 
is for the broken, blighted^ downcast, bereft, in that mo- 
ment of their sorest agony, when returning from the grave 
to the silent house of bereavement — entering the lessened 
fold, and marking the blank in the flock, — blessed it is 



144 THE SHEPHERD AXD HIS FLOCK. 

to feel the Abiding Friend filling the empty place and the 
aching heart. The sheep has gone, but the Shepherd re- 
mains ! 

Our concluding practical reflection is one of warning. 

This precious passage, so full of tenderness and love to 
the erring, the backsliding, the suffering, ends with a brief 
but most solemn utterance of "judgment" on the impeni- 
tent, the self-righteous, and unbelieving. " He that has 
rest for disquieted saints," says Matthew Henry in his com- 
ment on this verse, "has terror to speak to presumptuous 
sinners." That Shepherd of Israel adds, (it is a thrilling 
postscript) "But I will destroy the fat and the strong ; I 
will feed them ivith judgment." 

This seems to refer to those who are living in guilty in- 
dependence of God; disowning His hand — resisting His 
grace ; — self-satisfied and self-contented ; — fancying them- 
selves rich and increased with goods, and having need of 
nothing ; — no tear of penitence in their eye — no conscious- 
ness of distance from the fold — no longings for return. How 
many such there are ! And strange it is, those often who 
are the most abundant recipients of the Shepherd's love, — on 
whom worldly prosperity has most richly descended,— "the 
fat and the strong," are frequently most apt to live this life 
of guilty atheism, saying in their hearts, "Who is the Lord 
that we should obey Him." "Jeshurun,"vre read, "waxed 
fat and kicked." Like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, 
fed and pampered in the stalls of earthly prosperity, that 
prosperity has often proved a curse. It has nurtured a rebel, 
restive, ungovernable spirit. The gifts which should have 
drawn upwards to the Giver, have, alas ! drawn downwards 



THE CLOUDY AND DARK DAY. 145 

to perdition. "I will destroy" such, says God. Judgment, 
indeed, does not often descend now, under a present eco- 
nomy. These obdurate are suffered to live on, "feeding" — 
1 ' nourishing their hearts for the day of slaughter/' But that 
day of retribution will come ; and the Great Being, whose 
love they have slighted, and whose pleadings they have 
scorned, will be true to His own solemn declaration — l< He 
that, being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall sud- 
denly be destroyed, and that without remedy !" 

" Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die ? " God is " not 
willing that any should perish, but that all should come 
to repentance." Presume not, however, on his forbear- 
ance and mercy. Ye lost ones ! — wandering up and down 
the desert of the world seeking rest and finding none — 
see that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. The Shep- 
herd may now be abrqad seeking you in some cloudy 
and dark day; but remember, these "seeking" seasons 
dare not be lightly tampered with. They are the days 
of His " merciful visitation." If they be allowed to 
pass by unimproved, the echoes of His voice may be 
heard no more. The clouds may only gather more deeply 
and lour more gloomily, and you may be hopelessly lost 
amid the dark mountains of your wandering. David's 
men, when they heard " the sound of going in the tops of 
the mulberry trees," rushed on to battle, and discomfited 
the host of the Philistines in the valley of Bephaim. If 
they had neglected the preconcerted signal,— if they had 
delayed till that wild music had died away, — the victory 
would have been forfeited — the sun would have set on their 
vanquished and panic-stricken ranks, — the opportunity 

K 



146 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

would have been lost. Oh, how many neglect the voice 
of God "in the mulberry trees!" How many miss and 
forfeit the sanctified use of affliction ! The Spirit of God is 
moving amid the rustling foliage; — to advance would be to 
conquer ; resolute deed would end in spiritual advantage. 
But the day of grace, the hour of solemn pleading is allowed 
to pass. They have become weak as other men, who out 
of weakness might have been made strong, waxed valiant 
in fight, and turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 
While that gracious Shepherd of the flock is now abroad, 
seeking to gather in the weary, the wandering, the perish- 
ing, — while judgment -still lingers, let us not be among the 
number of those who continue to wander deeper, and yet 
deeper amid the cloudlands of sin, — to whom, at last, will 
be reserved the mist of darkness for ever ; and on whose 
forlorn graves will be inscribed the mournful epitaph — ■ 
(words which the Great Shepherd Himself uttered, through 
His tears, over the doomed fold of Israel,) " Thou knewesi 
not the time of thy visitation'' 






"HE SHALL IFEED his tlock like a shepherd; he shall gather the 

LAMBS -WITH HIS ABM, AND CARRY THEM IN HIS BOSOM, AND SHALL 
GENTLY LEAD THOSE -^THAT ARE WITH YOUNG." — ISAIAH XL. 11. 



THE SHEPHERD'S GENTLE DEALINGS WITH THE 
BUEDENED OF THE FLOCK. 

One of the leading ideas in these beautiful words is, the 
strong supporting the weak : Omnipotence stooping to sus- 
tain feebleness : the mighty God — the Shepherd of Israel — 
feeding the helpless and dependent,* bearing the lambs in 
His arms, and gently leading the weary and burdened. In 
nature we have often examples of the strong being thus the 
prop of the fragile and tottering. The old tower or keep, 
that has sustained the fierce assaults of armies, holds out 
its massive arm to the feeble, clinging ivy. The ocean, 
puissant to sweep dow$ navies in its gloomy caverns, sup- 
ports on its dimpled bosom the tiny skiff, or the branch 

* We have incidentally referred, in a previous chapter, to the graphic 
picture which Dr Thomson gives in his interesting volume; but as a special 
illustration of the present passage of Scripture, we transcribe it here in full : 
— " In ordinary circumstances the Shepherd does not feed his flock, except by 
leading and guiding them where they may gather for themselves ; but there 
are times when it is otherwise. Late in autumn, when the pastures are 
dried up, and in winter, in places covered with snow, he must furnish them 
with food, or they die. In the vast oak woods along the eastern sides of 
Lebanon, between Baalbek and the Cedars, there are there gathered innu- 
merable flocks, and the shepherds are all day long in the bushy trees, cut? 
ting down the branches, upon whose green leaves and tender twigs the 
sheep and goats are entirely supported. The same i3 true in all mountain 
districts, and large forests are preserved on purpose. The ring of the axe, 
the crash of failing trees, the shout of the shepherds, the tinkling of bells, 
and the barking pi dogs, wake a thousand echoes along the deep wadies of 
Lebanon." — The land and the Booh, p. 204. 



150 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

washed from the shore. These, and such-like, are dumb 
parables in the outer world, shadowing forth a nobler 
verity, — "Foi thus saith the high and lofty One that in- 
habiteth eternity, whose name is Holy ; I dwell in the 
high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite 
and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and 
to revive the heart of the contrite ones/' (Isa. lvii. 15.) 

It is different with man. The great ones of the earth 
generally associate alone with the Great. Thev are like the 
eagle which holds little converse with the low, misty valley, 
when it can get up amid the blue skies and granite peaks. 
It is the powerful — the rich — the strong — the titled, who 
are the deified and worshipped. The weak, and poor, and 
powerless get but a small fraction of regard. These are too 
often left unpitied and uncared for; to endure the rough 
struggle of existence as best they may. And the world has 
according!}' shaped its divinities after this its own ideal. 
We see the embodiment of that ideal chiselled in the old 
slabs of Assyrian marble, where the winged bull or lion 
is depicted trampling its enemies in the dust ; the strong 
trampling on the weak. The early Christians had also 
their truer and nobler symbol, which, as previously noted, 
they have left in rude device in the catacombs at Eome ; — 
the oft-recurring representation of a Shepherd — the Great 
Shepherd of the sheep — the Mighty God — carrying on His 
shoulder a feeble lamb.* 



* It may here be noted, that in the remarkable prophecy of Micah. quoted 
in the second chapter of St Matthew's Gospel, the ^//^mf-character of the 
coming Messiah is specially referred to. " And thou Bethlehem in the 
(and of Judah. art not the least among the princes of Juda; for out of tLee 



THE SHEPHERD'S GENTLE DEALINGS. 151 

It is the perfect Humanity of Christ which forms the 
bond of union between omnipotence and weakness ; He being 
alike the Everlasting God, and the Babe of Bethlehem. In 
this respect, indeed, the emblem of the Prophet, impressive 
as it is, is partial and incomplete. There is wanting perfect 
identity of nature between the earthly sheep and their shep- 
herd to insure complete sympathy. For however closely 
the keeper of the fold, in olden times, on these wild Syrian 
hills or plains, may have associated with his flock, — sharing 
their companionship by night and day, — still, a vast interval 
in the scale of being separated the two. " How much, 7 ' says 
our Lord, " is a man better than a sheep." But different is 
the bond of sympathy wdrich unites the Great Shepherd 
with His spiritual flock. He became one of the flock Him- 
self. Inhabiting eternity, He nevertheless pitched His tent 
among earthly tabernacle^ : He was bone of our bone, and 
flesh of our flesh. There being thus identity of nature, 
there is identity of feeling and experience. "In all things 
He was made like unto His brethren." While, however, 
in this point of view the accuracy of the shepherd-symbol 
fails, we must not omit to mark how beautifully it illus- 
trates the leading truth with which we started, viz., — the 
love of a higher nature to inferior natures. The Palestine 
shepherd in a sense loves his sheep. As we have oft 
before noted, he protects them — defends them— risks his 
life for them — enters into their very gambols, and joys 
in their joy. It is an expressive picture of the love of 
the Creator to . His creatures ; or rather of a covenant 

shall come a governor that shall rule [lit. ' who shall act the part of a shep. 
herd,' 6'sris iroLixa.veL,'] over my people Israel." 



152 THE SHEPHERD AXD HIS FLOCK. 

God to His believing people. The mightiest of Beings 
stooping to be the Protector, Defender, ay, Friend of re- 
deemed man. " HE shall feed His flock like a Shepherd ! ; ' 
Who is this ? It is that God whose throne is immutability 
— whose power is boundless — whose dominion is immen- 
sity — whose life-time is eternity. Yet He, with a shep- 
herd's love and tenderness, attends to the wants of the 
humblest and weakest of His enormous family; — feeding all 
His flock, and marking the peculiarities of all. There is no 
subject of contemplation, indeed, more marvellous, than the 
unceasing attention and care lavished by Deity on small as 
well as on great; that the vast provinces of His giant em- 
pire do not withdraw His thoughts and care from the feeble 
and insignificant ; that He who wheels the planets in their 
courses, and lights up the blazing suns of the firmament, 
canw T atch also the sparrow's fall and feed the young ravens 
when they cry ! Just as the mountain supports the tiny 
blade of Grass and the modest floweret, as well as the mant 
pine or cedar: just as that ocean bears up in safety the 
sea-bird seated on its crested waves, as well as the levia- 
than vessel : so while the Great Keeper of Israel can 
listen to the archangel's song and the seraph's burning de- 
votions, He can carry in His bosom the feeblest lamb of the 
fold, and lead gently the most sorrowing spirit. The Psalm- 
ist delights to celebrate these two thoughts in conjunction; 
— God in the vastness of His omnipotence, and God in the 
condescending tenderness of lowly love to the feeble and 
fallen. "Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, Thy 
dominion endureth throughout all generations" — "The 
Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that 



THE SHEPHERD'S GENTLE DEALINGS. 153 

be bowed down ! " " He telleth the number of the stars ; 
He calleth them all by their names" — "He healeth the 
broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds." 

Let us at present advert to a few of the cares and weak- 
nesses and burdens of the flock, whom Jesus, the Great 
and Good Shepherd, so tenderly gathers, and so gently 
leads. 

The first burden we may refer to is the burden of Sin. 
Blessed are they, — those weary oiles — who feel this bur- 
den, and long to get rid of it. Blessed are they to whose 
spiritual eye the Holy Spirit unfolds the existence and 
reality of this burden, — and permits them to get no rest, 
till, like the load of Bunyan's Christian, it falls from 
their back at the foot of the cross. We have pre- 
viously seen how gently^, the Saviour of old dealt with 
burdened sinners. Never once did He spurn penitence 
and anguished tears from His feet. Never once did He 
say, "Go, child of the devil — thy sins have placed thee 
beyond the pale of mercy, thy case is hopeless, thy bur- 
dens cannot be removed — weary me no longer with thy 
pleadings ! " On the contrary, His whole ministry and 
teaching were a significant comment on the prophetic 
utterance — " A bruised reed He will not break." Simple, 
but expressive emblem! The most fragile thing in nature 
is the shivering reed by the river side. The Eastern 
shepherd tending his flock by the streams where these 
reeds grow, appears to have used them for his rustic 
pipe. When one of them was bruised or broken, he never 
made the attempt to mend it. By inserting it among the 



154 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

others he would make his instrument discordant, and ac- 
cordingly he threw it aside as worthless. Not so the Great 
Shepherd. When a human soul is bruised and mutilated 
by sin, He casts it not away. That bruised reed " He will 
not break." He repairs it for its place in the heavenly in- 
strument, and makes it once more to show forth His praise. 
Go, burdened one. to this Shepherd of Souls ! Go, weak 
and weary lamb of the flock ; — and as thou liest in His 
bosom, hear His word of comfort and consolation, — " I 
will remove thy shoulder from the burden : " — " Ephraim, 
thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help:" — 
"Jehovah Rophi, I am the Lord that healeth thee:" — 
" Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more !" 

Another burden of the flock of God is the burden of 
Doubts. Blessed are they who bring these burdens too, to 
Christ, They are heavy burdens. We must not deal 
harshly and unkindly with those who bear them. Happy, 
indeed, are the receptive spirits who can apprehend the 
truth as little children; — who can open their hearts like 
the sun-flower to the sun — and drink in, all at once, 
from his radiance. Others, however, from constitutional 
and mental temperament, are cautious — slow of heart. 
They must have a reason for all they hear, and all they 
believe. They arrive at the truth by slow processes. The 
sun's beams have to force their way through the closed 
calyx. They remain with shut, imprisoned blossoms 
long after their floral compeers have been basking in his 
light, displaying their beauty and dispensing their fra- 
grance. 



THE SHEPHERD'S GENTLE DEALINGS. 155 

Now those who doubt for the sake of doubting ; — who 
encourage and feed the carpings of a speculative mind, — 
can expect no gentle leadings or dealings from the Shep- 
herd. He will release no such burdened ones : — their. Un- 
belief is not their misfortune but their sin : — they incur a 
heavy risk and penalty by fostering and encouraging doubts, 
as they would encourage spiders, to cover with their webs 
the windows of the soul, and hide out the spiritual 
landscape. Doubt will, by and by^ in such cases, pass into 
free-thinking, and free-thinking into cheerless infidelity. 
But those whose doubts are the trembling misgivings of 
anxious inquirers ; — those who are really in earnest in seek- 
ing the truth; — feeling their way cautiously but surely, 
step by step up the ladder, — seeking to "do God's will/' at 
the same time that they seek to "know of the doctrine/' — 
these the Shepherd is £ver willing to receive and lead, 
and to make good in their experience His own promise, 
" Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord." 
Nicodemus was one who had such a burden. He stole by 
night, when the streets of Jerusalem were hushed in 
silence, to the abode of the Great Teacher, to wzburclen his 
burdened heart, and to be instructed in the things of the 
kingdom. Many of the new doctrines were startling and 
repugnant to this cautious man of the Pharisees. He 
honestly avowed that they crossed his preconceived opinions. 
" How can these things be ? " The Great Shepherd kindly 
received and kindly instructed him ; and, at the close of 
their conversation, gave a "significant hint as to the reason 
why, in contrast with such honest seekers as he, many 
brooding doubts, in the case of others, settle into unbelief 



156 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

and scepticism : — " Light is come into the world, and men 
love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are 
evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, 
neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be re- 
proved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light." 
What was the result of this " doer " of the truth bringing 
his darkness to the light, and his burdens to the Shepherd 
of souls ? It was this ; that from a state of anxious doubt, 
he became strong in faith, giving glory to God. For when 
the Shepherd was smitten, and the other sheep scattered, 
that once trembling spirit gloried hi the public avowal 
of his faith in Jesus, and in the broad light of day came 
and boldly demanded of Pilate the body of his Lord ! 
Thomas was another still more heavily oppressed with 
this burden. "When the other apostles willingly credited 
the fact of a risen Saviour, attested by trustworthy wit- 
nesses — he would not believe unless he had ocular proof, 
— unless he saw and handled the spear-wounds of the 
mangled body. How did the Lord treat this doubting 
apostle? He knew his peculiar temperament: — He had 
tested before, the sturdy heroic faith of the man, who had 
at a recent crisis-hour, boldly proposed to his fellow- 
apostles to perish with their Master: — " Let us also go that 
we may die with Him." He will not spurn him now. 
No ! even though his doubt is unreasonable and indefen- 
sible ; — yet He will make due allowances for a naturally 
hard, severe, rationalistic, speculative nature,/ — a man slow 
and guarded to a fault in the reception of evidence, — yet 
firm as a rock when once the truth has got hold of his mind. 
"Beach hither thy finger," said He, "and behold my 



THE SHEPHERD'S GENTLE DEALINGS. 157 

hands; and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my 
side : and be not faithless, but believing." The Good Shep- 
herd, who thus gently led that burdened one out of his 
doubts into strong faith, had no harsher reproof than this 
— " Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast be- 
lieved; blessed are they who have not seen and yet have 
believed." The apostle never, to his dying day, forgot 
being thus carried in these gentle arms. A future life 
of zeal and hard labour atoned for the passing hour of 
hesitancy, and showed that the " My Lord, and my God," 
uttered by adoring lips, was no formal ejaculation, — 
no empty, hollow protestation of love and devotedness. 
Yes ! it is a cheering consolation, that He who sug- 
gested, the merciful excuse for the sleepers in Gethsemane 
— " the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak," He 
will " gently lead " the Little-faiths and Eeady-to-halts — 
as well as the Samsons and Asahels of His flock. Often 
does He come in the night-seasons of their darkest doubt, 
and lights the dim candle of faith and hope and loving 
confidence. Just as a mother, when her child awakes at 
midnight, frightened and scared with visions, strikes a 
light and illuminates the chamber, smoothing the ruffled 
brow, and kissing every fear away : so doth the Lord re- 
move the gloomy misgivings of His children : — " Thou," 
says the Psalmist, " wilt light my candle, the Lord my 
God will enlighten my darkness." 

Another burden of the Lord's flock, is the burden of 
Sorrow. How many are weak and weary, and weighed down 
with this ! Few, comparatively, may have the burden of 



158 THE SHEPHEED AND HIS FLOCK. 

doubt, but many are the children of affliction — many 
more than the world knows of. For the saddest sor- 
rows are secret ones, -with which a stranger doth not 
intermeddle. 

God gently leads such. He takes them in His arms. 
He will not conduct them over a rougher road than 
they are able to bear. He adapts His consolations to them. 
As the Eefiner of Silver, He is seated by the furnace of His 
own lighting, regulating the fury of the flames. u I will 
correct thee," says He, "in measure!' All will be meted 
out, " He will stay His rough wind in the day of His 
east wind." That Great Shepherd, who has " shorn the 
lamb," has "the winds in His fists," and He will temper 
them accordingly. He will give the oil of joy for mourn- 
ing, and the garment of praise for a spirit of heaviness. 
Oh, thou who art burdened with life's manifold afflictions, 
think of the strong Arm that bears thee ! TVe have heard 
of the seaman grasping the infant from the sinking ship in 
one hand — and cleaving the roaring breakers with the 
other — bringing it safe to shore. That is a picture of thy 
God. Omnipotence sustaining weakness. "Trust in the 
Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting 
strength." Through all the billows of this mortal life, He 
will bring thee to the desired haven. " The Lord on high 
is mightier than the noise of many waters ; yea, than the 
mighty waves of the sea ! " 

Let us suggest, in conclusion, one or two brief thoughts 
from this description of the Saviour's dealing with His 
weaiy and burdened flock ; gathering the lambs with His 



THE SHEPHERD'S GENTLE DEALINGS. 159 

arm, carrying them in His bosom, and gently leading 
those that are with young. 

This language speaks of safety. Where is a lamb so 
safe as in its shepherd's arms ? The wolf may be prowl- 
ing close by ; — the flooded stream may be threatening to 
sweep away the rest of the fold ; — but that weak and help- 
less creature is secure Before you can injure or destroy 
it, you must destroy the shepherd. The feeblest member 
of the flock of God, is safe in the arms of Covenant love 
and faithfulness. His throne must first be shaken, before 
the interests of the humblest believer can suffer. The life 
of Jesus is the pledge and guarantee for the life of His 
people. " Because I live, ye shall live also ! " 

The words speak of affection. An Eastern traveller tells 
us, that the Syrian shepherd is often seen surrounded by 
some favourite lambs which do not mix with the rest of the 
flock — but are to be seen at one time borne in his arms, or 
frisking and fondling at his heels. Or, shall we look again 
at that higher symbol of earthly affection — the child nestl- 
ing in its mother's arms — confiding in that mother's ten- 
derness — whispering itg little tale of sorrow or joy in its 
mother's ear, and she, in return, singing over its couch her 
lullaby of love ? Both are feeble pictures of the affection- 
ate intercommunion between Christ and His chosen. 
" The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and 
He will show them His covenant." Ay, and there is this 
difference ; the shepherd may forsake — the mother may 
forget — " yet," says the Good Shepherd, " yet will I not 
forget thee ! " 

This beautiful saying of the Prophet speaks still fur- 



160 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

ther of sympathy : — gathered in His arms — borne in His 
bosom : it tells how near we are to Christ ; — how closely 
we are brought into endearing union with Himself, and 
especially in our burdened seasons — our times of trial and 
sorrow. There is no more precious truth upon which the 
mind can repose, than this infinitely pure and exalted 
sympathy of the Great Shepherd of the Sheep. He Himself 
■ — the Prince of Sufferers — having borne our griefs and car- 
ried our sorrows — as He bears us in His arms through the 
wilderness, can tenderly enter into every pang which rends 
our hearts. It has been observed, with regard to the 
Eastern shepherd and his flock, that there is a mysterious 
sympathy which grows up between them, on account of 
their sharing common dangers. This has a deeper and 
truer meaning in the relation of the Chief Shepherd to 
His people. In every thorny thicket of their wilderness 
He has been ; — every midnight of storm and tempest that 
lias environed the sheep has environed Him; — the lone- 
liness and desolation of the loneliest of His flock has been 
shared in a far intenser severity by Him. " In all points 
He was tempted like as we are." " In that He himself 
hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them 
that are temp ted." 

Let us finally learn the blessedness of loosing in Christ: 
trusting Him implicitly in all the vicissitudes and exi- 
gencies of life. We ourselves cannot calculate on the 
future. We cannot predict one turn in the highway of 
existence. The morrow is a blank and enigma : we 
cannot point our finger to one of its hours and say, c So 
and so it shall be with us/ We know in our libraries 



& 



THE SHEPHERD'S GENTLE DEALINGS. 161 

where to find a book: — we know in our gardens where 
to find a flower ;— we know in the mountain we have oft 
ascended where to pause for the view, and to look in the 
distance for the blue smoke of some loved hamlet ; — we 
know where to look in the heavens for a favourite star 
— or where to direct the telescope to view a brilliant 
planet. AVe can with confidence predict the march of the 
seasons, — when spring will tread on the heels of winter, 
and flowers appear on the earth, and the time of the sing- 
ing of birds may come. But we cannot predict or foresee 
the manifold changes of this manifold existence. The 
flowers in life's garden may wither in a moment. We may 
look up in vain on life's firmament in search of an extin- 
guished star. Ours is at best an April day— showers and 
sunshine. We never can tell when the shadows wull sweep 
across the landscape ; — when the clouds may gather and 
the birds cease to sing, and the sun of happiness be swept 
from the meridian. But it is our comfort to be assured — 
that He who feeds His flock like a shepherd — who mar- 
shals the sun and planets — knows every flower of life's 
garden, counts every tree of its forest, and every leaf of 
every tree ! All that concerns us and ours is in His 
hands. 

"Father, I know that all my life, 

Is portioned out to me ; 
And the changes that are sure to come, 
I do not fear to see." 

And it is not His sovereignty merely, we have to exult in, 
— (that is the lesser — or least comforting portion of the 
great truth) — but it is His Paternal or Shepherd-love — 

L 



162 THE SHEPHEKD AND HIS FLOCK. 

His covenant-interest In us. "He shall feed His flock' 
(not like a sovereign, who often rules his people with a rod 
of iron, but) "like a shepherd/' who gently leads them with 
rod and staff of love. In all the periods and stages, too, 
of life, " He is faithful that promised/' Youth lias few 
burdens : mid-age — the glory of manhood, — although as- 
sociated with "the burden and heat of the day/' has, gener- 
ally speaking, at all events, strong shoulder and agile limb 
to bear its burdens. But some whose eyes trace these pages, 
may, with fragile step, be tottering under the burden of old 
age — the burden of declining years. The keepers of the 
house may be trembling, and the strong men bowing them- 
selves — fears may be in the way, and the grasshopper may 
be a burden. To such the Great Shepherd draws near, and 
says, ' Fear not ! I will gently lead you. " Even to old age I 
am He, and even to hoar hairs will I carry yon. I have made 
and I will bear, even I will carry and will deliver you/' ' 
When the decrepit enfeebled body is fast failing — when the 
outer casement is fast crumbling to decay — how beautiful 
is it often to see the inner shrine of the soul lustrous as 
ever, — as if the very rents in the house of the earthly 
tabernacle were only opening a way for the transmission 
of the rays of the coming heavenly glory ! Ay, and often 
too, when memory is hazy and clouded for every other 
theme — there is one Name which cleaves imperishably to 
its tablets — the name of Jesus ! — the music of that name 
refreshing and cheering at the hour of departure — as if the 
aged Christian really felt himself upborne in the Shep- 
herd's arms as he passed through the floods of Jordan. 
Would those who may be feeling that the vigour of man- 



THE SHEPHERD'S GENTLE DEALINGS. 163 

hood is past — that their sun is fast westering — that hav- 
ing long ago reached the top of the hill, they are now de- 
scending the shady side into the valley, — would they know 
in time, how to be eased of their burdens, and to sing in 
old age as in the days of their youth ? It is by walking 
at their Shepherd's side, and breathing the prayer for con- 
scious nearness — "Abide with us, for it is toward evening, 
and the day is far spent ! " 

Go, then, burdened one, whatever be the diversity in 
your age and experience, lean on your Shepherd's bosom. 
"His gentleness will make you great." Earthly friends — 
earthly shepherds — may deceive you — they may prove 
summer shepherds — summer friends : at your side when 
all is sunshine : but when the winter's blast comes, and 
the tiiees are stripped, and the brooks fail, and their pro- 
tection is most needed, thSy may leave you unsheltered to 
the sweep of the storm. But He will not ! Omnipotence 
loves to stoop to weakness. The royal Shepherd of Beth- 
lehem, who laid in the dust the giant of Philistia, could 
also weep tears of love and tenderness over a tiny, pining 
flower in his own palace. So is it with the true David. 
He combines the might and majesty of Godhead with the 
tenderness of weeping humanity. The same hand that 
upholds the world, could take and can take the little child 
into His arms and bless it. He may lead you along the 
wilderness by a way that you know not, and by paths that 
you have not known. But trust Him : — He will feed and 
lead His flock "like a shepherd ; " succouring the faint, 
carrying the weary, sustaining the burdened. This de- 
scription of the people He led of old out of Egypt will be 



164 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

the history of every member of His flock still, when safe 
gathered within the heavenly fold : — " He found him also 
in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness — 
He led him about, He instructed him, He kept him as the 
apple of His eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, flut- 
tereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh 
them, beareth them on her wings : so the Lord alone did 
lead him." In the quaint words of an old writer — " He 
will lead you in — He will lead you up — He will lead you 
through — He will lead you Home ! " 



ftfrt JfloA m % ®tttfi>. 



" BEHOLD, I SEND YOU FORTH AS SHEEP IN THE MIDST OP WOLVES."- 

Matt. x. 16. 



i 



I 

THE FLOCK IN THE WOELD. 

The figure employed by the Good Shepherd, which is to 
form the theme of consideration in this chapter, is one that 
would be familiar to all His hearers. "The sheep in 
the midst of wolves :" — The wolf coming and " scattering 
the sheep/' were apposite symbols of the fierce temptations 
with which His disciples then, and His people in every 
age, might expect to be assailed* Who can attempt 
to describe these wolf-like temptations ? Apart from 
those more peculiar to the world around us, — the count- 
less absorbing influences and interests of sense and time, 
— a man's worst foes are too often those of his own house- 
hold. We have wolves in our own hearts, lurking insi- 
diously: — fettered vices, longing to burst their bands, and 
go forth on missions of death and ruin. There are the 
wolves of temper — envy — jealousy — hatred — malice, — 
each hidden in his covert — crouching in his lair — ready to 
make the spring when temptation offers. Covetousness — 
the wolf with the golden fleece — how it has strewed earth's 
highway with the bones of men ! Even our daily busi- 

* " Leopards and panthers, exceediDg fierce, prowl about these wild wadies. 
They not ^infrequently attack the flock in the very presence of the shep- 
herd, and he must be ready to do battle at a moment's warning. The 
faithful shepherd has often to put his life in his hand to defend his flock. 
I have known more than one case in which he had literally to lay it down 
in the contest."— The Land and the Boole, p. 203. 



168 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

ness and avocations may become to us a dangerous foe. 
Our very prosperity may turn into a ravening wolf. But we 
cannot attempt to particularise. "Wherever we look, the 
world is bristling with temptations. Wolves lurk on every 
side : — " The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and 
the pride of life/' each the leader of a hungry pack waiting 
for their prey. When we think of the earth as in the 
hands of Satan, — as one of the old writers expresses it, 
"the preserves and hunting-ground of the god of this 
world," — these wolves ready at his bidding to pursue and 
devour, — do not the words of our motto verse seem strange 
and startling ? Do we not rather expect to hear the Shep- 
herd giving directions as to surrounding His fold with lofty 
walls or secure enclosures, to prevent the possibility of the 
sheep falling a prey to the Destroyer ? W 7 ould it not have 
been better — we are apt at first sight to think — had He either 
made provision for keeping His flock safely within the fold 
of earth, or for at once translating them to the fold of 
heaven; — sanctifying and glorifying them at the moment 
of their justification ? Would it not be in every respect 
preferable for the believer ; — would it not conduce to a 
saintlier, more heavenly life, — if away from the world's 
perilous snares — 'the loud stunning tide of human care 
and crime ' — shut up in peaceful and secluded retirement 
— holding converse with pure nature, — like Elijah at his 
Cherith, lulled asleep by brook, and waterfall, and song 
of bird — gazing on golden skies and everlasting moun- 
tains ; — would not all this, it might be thought, be safer 
and better for the Christian, than having his spirit soiled 
with the degrading contacts of a debased and debasing 



THE FLOCK IN THE WORLD. 169 

world; — confronting temptation in its thousand forms — 
open profligacy — mean-souled selfishness — pitiful jealou- 
sies — superficial follies — frivolous excitements — debasing 
pleasure ? 

Such, we know, was the theory of the early church ; 
such was the development of Christian life in those suc- 
cessive ages, when the deserts of Palestine and Syria, 
and many parts of Europe, not excepting our own 
country, were crowded by hermits' cells and monastic 
establishments. Mistaken visionaries! We do all hon- 
our to the purer motives of these earlier anchorites and 
devotees. They were the victims of a devout delusion. 
Theirs, however, was not the ideal of the saintly life as 
prescribed and portrayed by their Lord and Master. Christ's 
description of His Church — the Shepherd's description 
of His flock is this: — " These are in the world." — "I 
pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, 
but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil :" — " Be- 
hold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves." 
We see the same truth illustrated and embodied in one of 
the acted parables — if we may so designate one of the many 
incidents which occurred in the course of His life and min- 
istry, and which veiled, under the outward drapery, some 
great moral or practical lesson; — He specially commanded 
His disciples to launch forth on the tempestuous sea of 
Galilee. We might suppose at first that they would have 
been exempted from the "toiling in rowing" — the con- 
trary wind — the midnight storm. They might have gone 
with their Lord to the quiet adjoining mountain-top, or 
accompanied the multitude, peacefully and without peril, 



170 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

along the shore to Capernaum. No ! " Jesus constrained 
them to get into the ship" It was a miniature picture of 
the Christian life; — the spiritual Voyager reaching the 
distant haven, through wind and storm and buffeting 
waves ; the sheep reaching the fold of heaven through a 
desert haunted by beasts of prey. 

We may profitably inquire for a little, into the reason and 
wisdom of such an appointment. Why is the Christian 
thus called on to mingle with the world, and grapple with 
its fierce temptations ? Why, instead of granting to the 
flock immunity from all assaults of evil, why has Jesus 
" sent forth His sheep into the midst of wolves ? " 

Many reasons might be assigned. At present we shall 
confine ourselves to one. Jesus sends forth His people 
into the world for the nurturing of their Christian graces. 

The plant or shrub is hardened, not by being secluded from 
outer influences — shut up in the hot-house— but by being 
left to wrestle with wind, and rain, and storm. The soldier 
is hardened, not by being pillowed in luxurious ease in 
camp or barrack, but by the stern discipline of trench and 
night-watch. So it is with the Christian. He reaches 
the crown by the way of the cross. He enters heaven, not 
like Elijah, borne up in his fiery chariot, but rather battling 
his way, inch by inch, step by step, up the typical ladder 
of an older saint. When the man out of whom Christ had 
cast the legion of devils came and threw himself at the feet 
of his Deliverer, with the importunate request to be per- 
mitted to follow Him, the reply was a decided negative. 
He wished at once to be housed in the fold ; but the Good 



THE FLOCK IN THE WORLD. 171 

Shepherd sent him back to the wilderness of temptation, — 
to the old (and likely adverse) contacts of his own home. 
When Peter, on the Mount of Transfiguration, in the 
ecstasy of his joy, would have had three permanent tents 
erected for his Lord and the two Heavenly Envoys, the pro- 
posal was immediately rejected. It was seeking the crown 
before the cross. It was seeking to reach the haven by 
overleaping the intervening billows. Earth had its duties 
still to be performed. The morning light found Master 
and disciple once more descending the hill; and the crowd 
at the foot of the mountain too plainly told them they 
were back again amid the old world of misery, and sin, 
and sorrow —the appointed training-ground for a sinless, 
sorrowless heaven. 

Take one other Scripture illustration. Many would have 
condemned the saints it* Nero's household, as being out of 
their places and sphere, while remaining in that godless 
palace. ' Wrong and perilous/ many would have said, 
'for these sheep to continue in the midst of wolves, — these 
Christians to be under the roof of a heathen master, whose 
golden crown and sceptre cannot gild or mask his villany 
and crime. Let them come out forthwith, and be separate, 
and touch not the unclean thing/ Not so thought Paul 
He sends his " chief" greetings to these very saints. Noble 
was it in subsequent years, to hear the bands of devoted 
believers, shut up in the Roman catacombs, singing 
hymns of faith and hope in subterranean dungeons. But 
equally noble and saintly is the spectacle of these early 
Christians, retaining their unflinching fidelity to a higher 
Power while resident within the palace of the Quirinal ; 



172 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

who, despite of the unscrupulous persecutors — ravening 
wolves around them — could keep faithful to their Great 
Shepherd, rendering to Caesar the things that were 
Caesar's, while they rendered to God the things that were 
God's. Paul was not the man to send honied words, un- 
meaning and unmeant salutations. His bold and honest 
tongue would have been the first to denounce to these 
courtiers or servants of the Eoman palace their adher- 
ence to place and pay, if this was inconsistent or incom- 
patible with the profes'sion and practice of the religion 
of Jesus. But from the very warmth and speciality of his 
greetings, he would seem to assure them, that if faithful to 
their great principles, theirs was Christianity in its loftiest 
type and form. " In the world, and yet not of it." Caesars 
servants, but the uncompromising haters of Caesar's sins ! 
His great general deliverance on this subject, he gives in 
one of the Corinthian epistles : — "Let every man wherein 
he is called, therein abide with God/' And this is religion's 
loftiest manifestation — its most difficult triumph, — to main- 
tain, it may be, in the midst of an ungodly circle of worth- 
less associates, a holy, pure, upright heavenly life : — for 
the Christian merchant to remain the merchant still, and 
yet to infuse a gospel spirit into daily business transactions. 
The shopkeeper to remain behind his counter still, but to 
show the power of gospel motives in determined hate of 
underhand dealings, equivocal ways, immoral bargains, 
illicit trade, knavish practices. The soldier to remain the 
soldier still, — earth's noblest specimen of generous self-sacri- 
fice for the good and safety of others, — but to show, by 
purity of conduct, loftiness of principle, kindness and for- 



THE FLOCK IN THE WORLD. 173 

givingness, that he is a good soldier of Jesus Christ. All pro- 
fessions may thus be hallowed and consecrated. Whatever 
our worldly callings may be, let us not be guilty of utter- 
ing the vain and futile wish, ' If my lot had been cast 
otherwise, I would have better served my God.' Serve 
Him where you are. Show how your Christian graces 
and principles can grow and flourish, despite of all diffi- 
culties and temptations. 

It is a remarkable saying of Moses in his farewell address 
to the tribes — "Kejoice, Zebuluri, in thy going out, and 
Issachar in thy tents/' Zebulun was the maritime tribe. 
Their possessions lay along the shores of the Mediterranean. 
They had their commercial port — their sailors — their 
traders. " They went to sea in ships, and did business in 
great waters/' Moses does not say to them, f I cannot bid 
you God speed until you,- abandon that sailor life— that sea- 
faring existence/ Nay. He says, ' God bless you in your 
pathway through the deep ! God speed your sails ! God 
waft your vessels to the ports of the Great Sea! May you 
see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep, 
and may He bring you to a quiet haven! Go — stretch 
your canvas to the gale/ " Eejoice, Zebulun, in thy going 
out!" 

Issachar was at one time in Hebrew history a tribe of 
husbandmen, at another a tribe of warriors. What says he 
to them ? Is it l Ye vine-dressers and ploughmen, if ye 
would serve God, ye must cast the pruning-hook and sickle 
away! Ye warriors, if ye would get to heaven at last, these 
battle plains must be abandoned ; — sword, and shield, and 
spear must be thrown aside; religion is compatible only 



174 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

with the arts of peace.' Nay! " Rejoice/' he says, "Issa- 
char, in thy tents." Let the husbandman and the vine- 
dresser cultivate his vineyard, but let him glorify all the 
while the Great Husbandman, "whose vineyard is the house 
of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plant," Let 
the ploughman cleave the furrows, and sow the seed, and 
reap his harvests, and think all the while of Time as the 
seed ground of Eternity. Let the warrior of Issachar come 
forth, like his brave ancestors, by the great river — the river 
Kishon. Let the chariot- wheels roll over the plain as in 
the heroic chivalrous age of Barak and Deborah. But let 
him " fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold on eternal 
life." Let not Zebulun covet Issachar's tents, as if he could 
serve God better in them than in his ships. Let not Is- 
sachar covet Zebulun' s commerce and active life — as if he 
could serve God better there than under the vine and fig- 
tree. Let each rejoice in their God-appointed calling and 
lot. 

Reader, whatever be your trade, profession, worldly cir- 
cumstances, take them as His appointments; use them so; 
and hear His voice bidding you speed, and saying, " Re- 
joice ! " Zebulun, rejoice in your going out ! If yours 
be like Zebulun, an active life, consecrate that activity to 
God's glory. If your business take you from home and 
country to traverse foreign shores, and live in distant 
climes — rejoice ! God's own way is said to be in the sea, 
and His path in the deep waters. He will be with you ; 
and if temptations assail you, the Shepherd of Israel will 
be with His own sheep in the midst of wolves. u Issa- 
char, rejoice in your tents ! " If yours be a sedentary life, 



THE FLOCK IN THE WORLD. 175 

if you tarry at home to divide the spoil, — saved the perils, 
and temptations, and hardships of distant lands, — rejoice 
in your quiet tents, your peaceful home-habitations, and 
pursuits. Temptations there will be everywhere; and tie 
grand thing is to carry the fear of God and an eye to the 
glory of God along with you in the midst of these tempta- 
tions. When you hear the howling of the ravening wolves, 
keep close by the guiding footsteps of the Shepherd. It is 
the great aim of apostolic teaching, and it ought to be the 
main aim of what is called Christian training, to inculcate 
principles; — to store the youthful mind especially, with lofty 
motives of action, the fear of God and the love of God, — 
and the identity of holiness and purity with happiness. 
So that, even though the gate of access be left open to the 
forbidden haunt, he may be deterred from entering, by 
having been taught the grand heroic lesson of self- 
restraint, " How can I do this great wickedness, and sin 
against God!" Let Christians try to be Christians de- 
spite of the world's allurements. " In the world ye shall 
have tribulation." " If any man will, come after me, he 
must deny himself/' The lily raises its head among 
thorns. The sheep goes onwards to the heavenly pas- 
tures in the midst of wolves. No shipowner would ever 
dream of keeping his vessel locked up in harbour in case 
of storms. It would lie there a worthless, useless thing. 
What does he ? He equips it well. Before leaving clock, 
he sees that every timber and bolt and rivet is in its 
place. He provides it with helm and compass, strong 
masts, sails, and rigging ; and, more than all, an experi- 
enced pilot. Forth it goes on its mission, to grapple with 



176 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

storm and tempest and wild tornado ! So it is in the 
Christian life. No spiritual vessel would ever reach 
heaven by lying inert — sleeping on its shadows m the 
earthly harbour. The Heavenly Pilot sends it out in the 
midst of these moral hurricanes, saying, as He does so, 
" Fear not, it is I, be not afraid ! " " Behold, I send you 
forth;" and it is well worth noting, that the <l I" of this 
verse is specially expressed in the original Greek : as 
if He would have His disciples then, and His people 
still, to extract comfort and encouragement from the 
fact, that He sends them on the warfare, and that they 
go not that warfare on their own charges. Yes, trem- 
bling sheep of the fold of God, that Shepherd will not 
forsake you. He will not suffer any temptation to go too 
far, but will, with the temptation, make a way of escape 
that you may be able to bear it. He will not suffer the 
wolf to devour. He holds every such wolf, as it were, in 
a chain. They can approach no farther than He permits. 
" Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have thee, that he 
might sift thee as wheat ; but I have prayed for thee that 
thy faith fail not !" "I will be a wall of fire around,'' says 
He, speaking of His flock. As the shepherds in Eastern 
countries, by night, encircle their folds with fires to scare 
off the wild beasts, ( 1/ says Christ the Great Shepherd, 
< will be like that fire ! ' 

Believer, privileged member of His fold, if He be faith- 
ful to you, be ye faithful to Him. Make no compromises 
to conciliate the world, abjuring your lofty principles, sub- 
mitting to a temporising policy, rushing headlong into 
temptation. How many seem to love volking, as near as 



THE FLOCK IN THE WORLD. 177 

they can, to the wolf-thickets ! How many venture to wan- 
der in strange pastures, where the dews of heaven rarely 
if ever fall ! Remember it is said, " Whosoever is a 
friend of the world is the enemy of God." Let these 
wolf-temptations rather drive you closer to the Shepherd. 
"Come with Me" says Christ, in the Song, "Come with 
Me from Lebanon, look from the top of Amana, from the 
top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the 
mountains of the leopards." Lebanon was the border 
mountain. It formed part of th'e border land between 
Palestine and Syria, between Israel and heathendom. It 
was there the haunts of the wild beasts were, — the roaring 
lion and the treacherous leopard. And it is the " border- 
country" of which it becomes Christians specially still to 
beware, — neutral territory, — the border-country of Satan, 
— the confines between the kingdoms of light and dark- 
ness. "Come with Me from Lebanon;" He repeats it, 
"with Me from Lebanon." He is the true "Tower of 
the Flock/ 5 * There would be no hope for us but for His 
promised strength and guidance. The sheep has no chance 
in the unequal conflict with a wolf, nor the clove with the 
vulture. "But He that is for us is greater than he that is 
in the world. The Intercessory Prayer of Christ was a 
prayer to His Father to c keep ' His sheep in the midst of 
wolves. The whole burden of the prayer is this : c They 

* " In certain localities, towers were erected for the double purpose of 
spying an enemy at a distance, and protecting the flock. Such towers were 
erected by Uzziah and Jotham, (2 Chron. xxvi. 10, xxvii. 4,) while their 
resistance in earlier times is testified by the name Migdal-eder, (Gen. xxxv. 
21,.) a.v., ''tower of Edar;" (Mic. iv. 8,) A.V., " tower of the flock."— Smith's 
Bible Dictionary. — Art. "Shepherd." 

M 



178 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

have no strength of their own. Father, keep them ! Keep, 
through Thine own Name, those whom Thou hast gives 
Me !' And, in the midst of these fiery trials and conflicts, 
think of the consolatory truth we spoke of in last chapter, 
of the Great and Good Shepherd Himself being exposed to 
these ravening wolves ; — think of these same temptations 
assaulting the soul of that spotless Saviour ; — and let this 
nerve you in passing through kindred experiences of trial. 
Follow the print of His suffering footsteps, — " Consider 
Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against 
himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds." Feel 
honoured in thus having, in any feeble degree, fellowship 
with Him in His sufferings. Hear Him pointing you away 
from the haunts of wild beasts to the unassailable security 
of the Heavenly fold. How will the rest and peace of 
these celestial pastures be enhanced and augmented, by 
contrast with the dangers and temptations of the earthly 
wilderness, — the corruptions of the world, which will then 
be " clean escaped ! " 

" Jesus, blessed Mediator ! 

Thou the trial-path hast trod, — 
Thou the Judge, the Consummator, 
Shepherd of the fold of God. 

u Blessed fold ! no foe can enter, 
And no friend depart eth thence ; 
Jesus is their sun, their centre, 
And their shield Omnipotence ! " 



■je §>1gz$itxVx (lift ia % Jfkck 



4 

"AND I GIVE UNTO THEM ETERNAL LIFE."— JOHN X. 28. 



THE SHEPHERD'S GIFT TO THE FLOCK 

In unfolding some of the more vivid Bible delineations of 
the Shepherd of Israel and the Flock of His pasture, we 
have hitherto spoken mainly, if not exclusively, of their 
present relationship to Him : — reclaimed from their wan- 
derings ; entering the Door of the Fold ; following His 
footsteps ; He preceding them ; leading them by the green 
pastures; marking out for them paths of righteousness; 
seeking them in the cloudy and dark day; tenderly bear- 
ing in His arms the weak and the burdened. In this 
chapter, we are on the threshold of grander truths. The 
green pastures and the still waters of earth, are but the 
earnest of more enduring realities. Here we have the 
Good Shepherd Himself announcing the bestowment on 
His people of a limitless future of being and bliss — i( l 
give unto them Etebxal Life/' 

Retaining, for a subsequent occasion, the consideration 
of the nature and elements of this peerless gift, we may 
meanwhile meditate briefly on the three thoughts which, 
in connexion with it, the words of the Shepherd suggest. 

It is a free gift. " I give!' Believers have them- 
selves no share in the purchase. Man, in bestowing his 
gifts, has generally reference to some loving or lovable 
qualities in the objects of his beneficence. But it was from 
no attractiveness on their part, — no foreseen good works 



182 THE SHEPHEED AND HIS FLOCK. 

or virtues, that the Good Shepherd was induced to pro- 
cure and bequeath the priceless heritage. It is a munifi- 
cent bestowment of sovereign grace and redeeming love. 
"I give" — it is theirs in unqualified, inalienable possession, 
— -a glorious freehold. The Ransomed Flock reposing in 
the heavenly paradise are spoken of as having " a right to 
the tree of life." It is the right of the slave who has had 
his freedom purchased. It is the right of the son who has 
been infeft in his patrimonial inheritance. It is the right . 
of the conqueror dividing among his soldiers the honours 
and trophies of victory which his own valour has won. 
And as it was His free sovereign love which led Him to 
pay the ransom-price, so it is the sovereign, irresistible 
grace of the Shepherd which keeps His flock every hour 
from destruction, and will present each member of it at last 
faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding 
joy. Let us not lapse into a loose and indefinite theology, 
by speaking of the " inherent power of the new nature." 
That is nothing. It is a shadow — a name — apart from 
the grace of Christ and the indwelling, upholding energy 
of the Spirit of God. Why was Paul enabled to stand 
firm when the messenger from Satan was sent to buffet 
him ? Why did not the thorn in the flesh get the better 
of his nobler self ? It was because that free grace which 
had " predestinated " and "called" and " justified/' was, in 
the hour of trial and temptation, made sufficient for him ; 
— God's strength " perfected in weakness," yea, over- 
coming weakness. Let us ever admire, with adoring won- 
der, this unmerited, undeserved, sovereign freeness,- from 
first to last, of the great salvation. Christ is the true 



THE SHEPHERD'S GIFT TO THE FLOCK 183 

Zerubbabel, who has laid the foundation, and who also 
will finish it. Seek to trace His hand in each part of 
spiritual building ; — beginning, carrying on, completing ; 
— the Alpha, the Omega ; the Justifier, the Sanetifier, the 
Glorifier. "Thanks be to God," says the apostle, "who 
always causeth us to triumph in Christ." As the pearl 
would remain for ever in the depths of the ocean 
unless the diver descended for it, so, unless He who pur- 
chased us as gems and jewels for His crown had taken 
us from the depths, there we should have remained for 
ever. And as He rescues the pearl, so He keeps it, 
polishes it, and finally inserts it in His mediatorial dia- 
dem. As His is the glory of the commencing work and 
the sustaining work, so His is the glory of the crowning 
and consummating work. The branch cannot live severed 
from the vine. The limb cannot live severed from the 
body. The Christian lives only by virtue of u Christ his 
life.'' It is not our repentance or our prayers, or our 
habits of grace, or our long standing in grace, which keeps 
us, — but the sustaining arm of an omnipotent Saviour. 
" The Lord is thy Keeper." " He that heepeth Israel doth 
not slumber/' Take, then, the gift of eternal life, but take 
it as Christ gives it — a " present" — a benefaction — a free 
heritage of sovereign love ; — its charter and title-deeds 
written in His own blood. " The gift of God is eternal 
life, through Jesus Christ our Lord* 

It is a pees ext gift; — a gift not in reversion but in 
possession. Not, "I shall give," but "I give" It is the 
life of grace now, preparatory to the life of glory hereafter. 
Scripture, in manifold passages, attests the same truth. 



184 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

" He that believetli on the Son of God hath everlasting 
life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed 
from death unto life." " "Who hath raised us up to- 
gether, and made us sit together in heavenly places in 
Christ." " Our lives aee hid with Christ in God." * Blessed 
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who 
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly 
places in Christ." Think of this ! — this eternal life — the 
purchase of sovereign love — is begun here. The feeble 
rill commences here, which expands at last into the river 
that niaketli glad the city of God. The first notes of the 
new song are hymned in the Church militant, though the 
full chorus be reserved for the Church triumphant. The 
bird, though still within its mortal cage, is gifted with the 
wings of a nobler being : it only waits the opening of the 
door to soar away to the heights of its bliss. The prisoner 
has obtained his reprieve : life — dear life — is once more 
his; — he only needs the unlocking of the prison-gate fully 
to realise the boon, the conscious possession of which 
has already kindled the fading lustre of his eye. The 
paralysed cripple has felt fresh energies creeping into 
his frame : he only waits till the swathing bands be un- 
loosed and he be freed from his couch, that he may enter 
the porches of the new Jerusalem-Temple, walking and 
leaping and praising God ! Ours indeed is still the life of 
sense — the natural life. We move in the scenery of the 
lower world. We mingle in its bustle ; — we pursue its 
avocations, and grapple with its grovelling, carking anxie- 
ties and cares. But let us seek that all this lower life be 
blended with the higher. Let the life of time be inter- 



THE SHEPHERD'S GIFT TO THE FLOCK. 185 

woven and interpenetrated with the life of eternity. " This 
is life eternal, to know Thee the only true God and Jesus 
Christ whom Thou hast sent." The vision and fruition of 
God- — that is Heaven. By seeking 'to have the knowledge 
of God now, w^e lisp the alphabet of Heaven. Delighting in 
God now — walking in His ways, doing His will, spend- 
ing life in His service, is the spring of a glorious 
autumn. He who is enabled in some feeble measure to 
make the averment, "I live for God/' — that man's higher 
being — his eternal existence and eternal happiness are 
already begun. His feet are on earth — but his citizenship 
is in heaven ! 

It is a great gift. It is "Eternal life." Eternity! 
— who can fathom that word ? What mortal thought or 
figure can compass its meaning? An old writer has 
thus illustrated it, (w r e d@ not give his exact language, 
but the idea is this :) Suppose this globe of ours 
to be composed of sand. Suppose at the close of every 
million of years, one grain were to drop from the enor- 
mous mass. Yet when the round orb of sand has ex- 
hausted its countless grains and its countless millions of 
years, that measureless lapse of ages will (compared to 
Eternity) be only as one swing of the pendulum ! What a 
heritage this, — these vears of deathless bliss ! We are in 
a perishable world. The proud monarchs of the past — 
where are they ? The sceptres waved over prostrate 
kingdoms, and the hands which grasped them, where 
are they ? Cities with the murmur of a swarming 
population — temple and tower rising to heaven — where 
are they? relics of perished magnificence — the owl and 



186 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

the satyr hooting desolation to the passer by! Every 
form and object around us, animate and inanimate, has 
the wrinkle on its brow. The most colossal works of 
nature are hastening to decay and dissolution. The day 
is coming when the sun itself si] all grow dim with age, — 
when the moon's silver lamp shall cease to burn, — when 
the stars in the great temple of night shall quench their 
altar-fires, — when the ocean shall be swept from its chan- 
nel, — when the forests shall be charred into blackness — 
the mountains crumble into dust, and the hills become as 
chaff. And after these present material heavens shall 
have passed away, there may be new suns and systems — 
new forms and conditions of matter, to take their place. 
There may be new volumes in the history of God's uni- 
verse, whose pages are eras, and their chapters millenniums. 
But there will be no break, no gap hi the believer's 
limitless life : no cancelling of the irreversible word, 
u They shall never perish''' They shall reign for ever and 
ever. Eternity ! Yes, believers, this is the measure of your 
happiness — the duration of your bliss ; — a duration, in 
comparison with which, all time, all history, all past 
cycles and ages, from the song of the morning stars till 
now, is but as a dream when one awaketh ! Existence 
coincident with that of the Infinite Jehovah! — the life- 
time of the Almighty — the years of God ! 

He who thus purchased, with His own precious blood, 
this magnificent inheritance, turns to each one of us and 
says, — " He that believeth in me, though he were dead 
yet shall he live : and whosoever liveth and believeth in 
me shall never die. Believest thou this ?" Let each direct 



THE SHEPHERD'S GIFT TO THE FLOCK. 187 

that question to himself, "Believest thou this V s Seek to 
make it matter of personal concernment. Think of the dread 
alternative — Eternal life or Eternal death ! — a heritage of 
joy or a heritage of wrath ! For while it is said, " He that 
hath the Son hath life/' it is added, " He that hath not the 
Son of God shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth 
on him." Abideth ! Yes, " abideth!" As life — eternal life 
— in the case of the believer, is now begun ; — as we have 
even in this world, the first instalment of that life which 
is never to die; — so, if we have not the Son of God — if we 
have no saving interest in Christ — what is our position, 
— what our inheritance ? Is it a fearful looking for of 
prospective future judgment and fiery indignation ? ]STay, 
it is more than this : it is worse than this. It is a present 
retribution. It is the first instalment of everlasting death ; 
— the first gnawings of the worm — the first kindlings of the 
everlasting fire ! " The wrath of God abideth!' It is not the 
brimstone cloud hanging over us, — but that cloud already 
burst ; — the wrath of God already " revealed from heaven ! " 
Seek without delay a saving interest in Him who came 
that " we might have life, and that we might have it more 
abundantly/" Elee — oh, flee from the wrath to come ! 
And here is a blessed — a glorious Shelter from that wrath: 
they are words uttered by the lips of the great Life-giver 
Himself — " God so loved the world, that he gave his only- 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not 
perish, but have everlasting life ! " 



%\t Smtritg of % JJcdft, 



" AND I GIVE UNTO THEM ETERNAL LIFE : AND THEY SHALL NEVER PERISH, 
NEITHER SHALL ANY MAN PLUCK THEM OUT OF MY HAND/' — JOHN X. 28. 



THE SECURITY OF THE FLOCK. 

Is this gift of Eternal Life — the great gift of the Divine 
Shepherd of the sheep, which we have considered in the 
preceding chapter — placed beyond the possibility of risk or 
forfeiture ? Passing unscathed through all perilous con- 
tacts, will His people reach with certainty the heavenly 
fold at last? That existence of endless bliss, so dearly 
purchased, is inalienably and irrevocably secured. Once 
within the Shepherd's fold, they are in the fold for ever, 
— in the possession of a life deathless and imperishable 
as His own. Jacob, in Kis touching appeal to exacting 
Laban, tells of sheep that had been stolen by night and 
day, and torn by wild beasts. How striking the contrast 
with the Great Shepherd, when He makes the protestation, 
' ' Of them which thou gavest me I have lost none." He 
hushes every fear and misgiving as He utters the glorious 
guarantee — " I give unto them eternal life, and they shall 
never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my 
handy 

This negative form of statement repeats, by implication 
under a new figure, the truth we have incidentally alluded 
to in a previous chapter, that there is in the world an ad- 
verse Power or Powers, whose aim is to accomplish, if pos- 
sible, the ruin and destruction of the Elect; that there is 
an Enemy lurking in the vicinity of the fold, and watching 



190 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

his opportunity to pluck the sheep out of the hands of the 
Shepherd. Satan is that great counterworked " We are of 
God/' says St John, speaking as the representative of Christ's 
people, — " and the whole world lieth in the wicked one."* 
In combination with his legion emissaries, he is ever en- 
gaged in storming a citadel. That citadel is the heart of 
man — the heart of the believer. A citadel, not like many 
of the forts or citadels we see in our own country, where 
the engines and implements of war are suffered for years 
on years to remain unused and undisturbed — the cannon 
waking their sleeping thunders only on days of commemor- 
ative joy — sentinels pacing their rounds, but only keeping 
mock vigils, for no enemy is at the gates, and the flag of 
peace hangs quietly on the battlements. But that heart is 
in a state of perpetual siege. By storm, and mine, and stra- 
tagem, the giant adversary is plotting its overthrow. And 
it is not the Little-hearts and Feeble-minded only, against 
whom he directs his missiles. It is against the Valiant and 
the Great-hearts too. He knows that the more signal and 
illustrious will be his triumph if he can succeed in cap- 
turing some veteran in the field, or in demolishing some 
fortress of renown. Hear one of such veterans telling his 
experience, (what a representation it gives us of the reality 
of this spiritual warfare) — " We wrestle" (weestle ! It is 
a personal struggle — foot to foot— hand to hand) — "We 
wrestle — not against flesh and blood — but against princi- 
palities and powers — against the rulers of the darkness of 
this world — against spiritual wickednesses in high places." 
What a picture have we here of the believer in the heat 

* kv Tip Trovypip. 



THE SECURITY OF THE FLOCK. 191 

of conflict ! Christ giving him the noble gift of life ; — Satan 
trying with every accursed wile and weapon to rob him of 
the priceless jewel. Christ leading him to heaven, step 
by step up the ladder of salvation ; — Satan watching the 
moment when he may find him off his guard to hurl him 
down. It is darkness seeking to extinguish light. It is 
death seeking to trample out life. It is the two antagonist 
forces of the material universe at work in spiritual things : 
the one drawing towards the central sun — the other drawing 
away into devious orbits. But He who is the great focus of 
divine life and light and being, countervails, in the case 
of all His own people, the might of "the prince of the 
power of the air." c Pluck my ransomed Church/ He 
seems to say, 'from its orbit of light and love, and draw 
it away into the regions of hopeless darkness and blank 
despair, you cannot/ " My sheep shall never perish.'' 
" Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor 
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, 
nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate 
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our 
Lord."* 

* " AVhat shall I do, Lord ? I strive and tug what I may with the 
spiritual ivicJcednesses in high places, which set upon nay soul ; but some- 
times I am foiled, and go halting out of the field. It is thy mercy that I 
live, being so fiercely assaulted by those principalities and powers : it were 
more than wonder that I should escape such hands without a wound. Even 
that holy servant of Thine, who strove with Thine angel for a blessing, weM 
] imping away, though he prevailed. "What marvel is it that so weak a 
wretch as I, striving with many evil angels for the avoidance of a curse, 
come off with a maim or scar ? But, blessed be Thy name, the wounds that 
I receive are not mortal ; and when I fall, it is but to my knees, whence I 
rise with new courage and hopes of victory. Thou who art the God of all 
power, and keepest the keys of hell and death, hast said, Resist the devil, 



192 THE SIIEPHEED AND HIS FLOCK. 

What are the grounds of this inviolable security of the 
believer's bliss ? 

God, the eternal Father, sets His seal to the words, " They 
shall never perish" The attributes of His nature — His 
Power, Love, Faithfulness, Immutability, all render the de- 
struction of one member of the ransomed fold impossible. 
" My Father who gave them ine is greater than all, and 
none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." 
" Thou," says Christ, addressing the Father with reference 
to Himself, " Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, 
that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast 
given Him." " Those whom Thou gavest me I have kept, 
and none of them is lost." " That by two immutable 
things," (His oath and promise) "in which it was impos- 
sible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, 
who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set be- 
fore us." 

Christ, the adorahle Son, sets His seal to the ivords, 
" They shall never perish!' He has a personal interest and 
responsibility in the salvation of each member of His 
chosen flock. They are made over to Him of the Father. 
He can say as Jacob, on that same occasion to which we 
have just referred, said of his flock to Laban, " That which 
is torn of beasts, . , . I bear the loss of it; of my hand dost 
thou require it." 

and he will flee from you. Lord, I do and will, by Thy merciful aid, still 
and ever resist : make Thou my faith as steadfast as my will is resolute. 
Oh, still teach Thou my hands to tear, and my fingers to fight) arm Thou 
my soul with strength ; and at last, according to Thy gracious promise, 
crown it with victory." — Bishop Hall's "Breathings of the Devout S&ul," 
p. 176. 



THE SECURITY OF THE FLOCK. 193 

God the Holy Spirit sets His seal to the words, " They shall 
never perish!' " And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, 
whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." " In 
whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that 
Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheri- 
tance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto 
the praise of His glory." 

In addition to these immutable guarantees of each of the 
Three Persons in the adorable Trinity, we have a more 
special ground of security arising but of that sublime and 
ennobling truth so frequently dwelt upon, directly and in- 
directly, in the inspired epistles, — the believer's spiritual 
union with his Lord. Incorporated into the mystical body 
of which He is the Head, to perish is impossible. We are 
accounted one with Him. Our lives are hid with Christ in 
God. " If we perish," ,says Luther, u Christ perisheth 
with us." Identifying Himself with His people, He may 
be supposed to say, as David said to Abiathar, " Abide 
with me, for he that seeketh thy life seeketh my life, but 
with me thou shalt be in safeguard." And what is this 
safeguard? It is the Deity of the Eedeemer. He who 
gives me life, and who promises that that life is imperish- 
able, is " the Mighty God." My hope of eternal life, pro- 
mised before the world began, stands on the Eock of Ages. 
Divinity gives it strength. He who is able to keep me 
from falling, is the "only wise God our Saviour." 

But, it may be asked, does fact or experience warrant 
all these strong assertions ? Are the sheep of Christ never 
plucked from the hand and bosom of the Shepherd ? Do 
we never see them lamentably stumbling and falling, and 

N 



194 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

in some cases, so far as we can judge, perishing, and perish- 
ing irrecoverably ? Kay, not so with one true member of 
the Saviour's fold. Such apostates may have seemed to 
be of the flock — but it was only in semblance, not in re- 
ality. They may have seemed to be true coin, from the 
divine mint ; but they were counterfeit metal — gilded 
alloy ; — they wanted the true ring of the currency of hea- 
ven. And if such apparently have perished; — if such 
sheep have apparently been plucked from the Shepherd's 
hands; — here is the Shepherd's own explanation, "They 
went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they 
had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with 
us : but they went out, that they might be made manifest 
that they were not all of us/' It is true, indeed, the life 
of the most devoted believer has its ebbs and flows : his 
safety, by reason of his own backslidings, corruptions, 
and unwatchfulness, may seem at times to be endangered : 
the sheep of Christ, as we shall note in the succeeding 
chapter, may in some moment of temptation, be found, 
and are found, wandering along the dark glen, entangled 
in brier thickets, or carried down the swollen stream. 
But as the shepherd among ourselves puts a mark on 
the various members of his flock that he may know his 
own; so the sheep of Christ bear upon them, what the 
old writers call "the blood-mark of the covenant" — 
and of these the Great Shepherd says, (when they may 
be themselves uttering the cry of despair,) — " All that the 
Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh 
unto me I will in nowise cast out." Their life and safety 
may apparently be endangered, but it is only as the flow 



i 






THE SECUBITY OF THE FLOCK. 195 

of the majestic river is apparently impeded by the mass of 
opposing rock in its channel. It is fretted for the moment ; 
but after clearing the temporary barrier, it dashes onwards, 
with grander impetuosity, in its way to the ocean. So 
with the believer. The rocks of temptation may obstruct 
and arrest the smooth current of his spiritual and eternal 
life ; but it is only for the moment ; — He that hath be- 
gun a good work — He that hath begun the new life — will 
carry it on until the day of the Lord Jesus. You may as 
soon dream of stemming a river — (lamming up the moun- 
tain torrent as it plunges over rock and cataract in its way 
to the shoreless sea — as arrest the flow of that God-given 
life. Eemember the apostle's golden chain — " Whom he 
did predestinate them he also called, and whom he 
called them he also justified, and whom he justified them 
he also glorified!" We jnay lose sight of the links of 
the chain, but it never can be broken. We love this 
doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. We cannot 
believe in the possibility of a man being regenerated 
to-day, and unregenerated to-morrow. As Christ's blood 
has purchased, so will His grace sanctify and His power 
save. " Having loved His own which are in the world, 
He loves them to the end/' If we are ever tempted to 
doubt or despond, — if ever led to fear that as wander- 
ing sheep we may be fatally swept down the mountain- 
torrent, or fall a prey to the evening wolves — let us think 
of a living, life-giving, life- sustaining Intercessor on the 
throne of Heaven \ — the Shepherd's eye watching us from 
the mountains of myrrh and the hills of frankincense ! 
Israel could never have coped with the disciplined 



196 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

chieftains of Amalek, but for the uplifted hands of their 
interceding head on the mount at Eephidim. They would 
have been scattered as chaff, — and their bones left to 
bleach in the wilderness. Joshua with all his fiery cour- 
age, as column after column swept along the valley beneath, 
would have been nothing, had not Moses been pleading on 
the hill. Blessed be God, we have One on the heavenly 
mount, whose arms never faint — whose hands never grow 
weary. His words have a perpetual meaning — a perpet- 
ual music — " I have prayed for thee — I am praying for 
thee — that thy faith fail not." Ye who are the sheep of 
Christ's pasture, see the secret of your preservation, — your 
perseverance ; — see the secret of this marvellous triumph 
3f your weakness over Satan's strength, — the " worm Jacob" 
in the strength of his Saviour-God " thrashing the moun- 
tains, and beating them small, and making the hills like 
chaff;" — the spiritual David, with a few brook-pebbles 
laying low the giants of sin and unbelief and temptation ! 
Yes, indeed, it is a mighty marvel, the security and final 
safety of every member of the fold. This poor plant 
— beaten with wind and hail, rain and tempest, out- 
living all, and destined to flourish in eternal luxuriance 
and beauty. This fragile vessel — the sport of ten thou- 
sand adverse influences- — buffeted by the waves of tempta- 
tion — left for nights on the starless ocean — grazing with 
its keel the sunken rocks, — yet outriding the storm, and 
entering peacefully the desired haven. This vile heart 
with its lemon-foes confederate with Satan, — Pleasure in 
its Proteus-shapes — Worldliness with its hydra-headed 
power — the archers of Mammon with their golden 



b 



THE SECURITY OF THE FLOCK. 197 

arrows — our own sins — each individual sin we commit, 
a foul attempt on our part to pluck us out of the Sav- 
iour's hand : — yet the battle is certain to end in victory. 
In earthly battles, victory trembles in the scale often for 
long hours of ensanguined fight; — neither side can predict 
the results. By some apparent accident — some trifle — 
the fortunes of the day may be decided, — the destiny of 
a country altered, the liberty of a people lost or won. 
But no such uncertainty hovers over this spiritual con- 
flict ;— triumph is sure; — no trophy will be lost; — no strag- 
gler will be left to perish ;- -as with Israel in quitting Egypt, 
"not a hoof will be left behind."- You will not only 
be conquerors, but "more than conquerors through Him 
that loved you!" "I give unto you," says He, "eter- 
nal life." Your names are imperishably engraven on this 
Heart of love — on this priestly Breastplate, — and they 
never can be erased ! ' 



Let us conclude with a word of explanation, of en- 
couragement, and of warning. 

A word of explanation.- Let not any misinterpret the 
truth, by imagining i from what has been advanced that 
we reduce believers to irresponsible machines, — like 
yonder engine careering on the iron highway, or plough- 
ing the waters ; — a dumb, sluggish, inert, soulless piece 
of mechanism, which is reined in, or which plunges 
on, in obedience to the intelligence which guides it, but 
which has no will, or purpose, or choice of its own. 
Let none say that they are the mere passive subjects of 
a predestinated purpose^-an irresistible destiny — which 



198 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

renders their salvation a certainty; and who are, there- 
fore, relieved from the necessity of all individual exertion 
in the work of their high calling : that being saved by 
an irreversible decree, they may live as they list; that 
final perdition being impossible, they may face and 
encounter what temptations they may ; — they can even 
hold parley with sin, or suffer it at times to gain the 
mastery ; it matters not — they will be saved at last. None 
is able to pluck them out of the Shepherd's hands ! 

Nay, God deals with His elect as rational, free, respon- 
sible agents. They are "kept" it is true — so the apostle 
Peter beautifully expresses it, (1 Pet. i. 5,) — "kept" (as 
in a citadel or garrison) — "by the power of God." But 
how, says he, are they kept? — "By the power of God, 
THROUGH FAITH, unto salvation." " Through faith!' As 
it has been well said, the eye of faith and the ear of faith, 
and the feet of faith, are all on the watch against the 
incursions of the enemy. This active, living, influential 
principle is ever on the alert; working by love, puri- 
fying the heart, and overcoming the world. Does St 
Peter regard the purchased safety and absolute security 
of the believer as an argument for unwatchfulness ? 
— that having in possession the gift of eternal life, the 
Christian may cast aside the spiritual armour, and fight 
and wrestle no more ? Hear his own words, in the first 
chapter of his second epistle — he speaks to those who 
" have obtained like precious faith, through the righteous- 
ness of God ;" — who have become "partakers of the divine 
nature." How does he address such? "Wherefore the 
rather brethren, give diligence to make your palling and 



THE SECUEITY OF THE FLOCK. 199 

election sure ; for if ye do these things ye shall never 
fall ; for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you 
abundantly, into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ." Never let any say, that these 
distinguishing doctrines of sovereign grace lead to 1111- 
guardedness — unwatchfulness ; or, what is worse, to 
licentiousness; — that we may continue in sin because this 
electing and saving grace abounds. Holy living, and 
holy walking, are the test and proof of election: — unholy 
living, and unholy walking are Satan's (nay, they are 
our own) brand of reprobation. The law and the gospel 
enunciate the same great principle — " To them who by 
patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, and 
honour, and immortality/' (He will render) " eternal life." 
" But to them that are disobedient, and do not obey the 
truth, but obey unrighteousness" (He will render) " indigna- 
tion and wrath, tribulation and anguish." 

We may draw a lesson of encouragement. What a glori- 
ous prize is this set before us — what a glorious incen- 
tive for our immortal energies ! Life ! the only thing 
worth calling life — the life of God in the soul, — a life 
whose infancy is on earth, and its perfected manhood 
in heaven. What is there worthy of aspiration in com- 
parison with this ? What though other earthly blessings 
be wanting, if you have this everlasting possession ? 
What though outward things may elude your grasp, 
and perish in . the very using, if you have " the better 
part" which is indestructible ? What would the sculptor 
pare though his packing-case be broken, if the priceless 



200 THE SHEPHERD AXD HIS FLOCK. 

marble group which it contains escape uninjured ? What 
would the mother care though her cradle be burnt in the 
flaming house, if her loving child, her loving treasure be 
spared? What though the thief have escaped with the 
casket, if the jewel remain? "Let the moveables go,*' 
says a good man — "the inheritance is ours!" Ee indif- 
ferent to what the world gives or withholds. Learn that a 
man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things 
which he possesseth. Life is not, as the world esti- 
mates it, composed of wealth, riches, honours, possessions; 
these are but the accidents of life — the outer shell — the 
perishable and corroding gilding. But it is the inner 
wealth of peace with God, — the assurance of His love, — a 
pure heart, a peaceful conscience, the humble hope of 
eternal fellowship and communion with Him above. 
" Our cause," says Luther, "is in the very hands of Him 
who can say with unspeakable dignity, ' No one shall 
pluck it out of my hands.' I would not have it in our 
hands — and it would not be desirable that it were so. I 
have had many things in my hands, and I have lost them 
all— but whatever I have been able> to place in God's 
hands I still possess." "The world passeth away, and the 
lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth for 
ever ! " 

Finally, let us hear a word of warning. This eternal 
life hangs on the small thread of the present. As we are 
now, so shall we be for ever. Eternal life is a synonym for 
character. " The child," it is said, "is the father of the man." 
This has a more solemn and awful — a more significant and 



THE SECUKITY OF THE FLOCK. 201 

truthful meaning with regard to a world to come. The 
childhood of time will determine the manhood of eternity. 
The passing moments of the present will colour the infinite 
future. Life in this world is the cartoon — the dim shadowy 
outline — which will be filled up and embodied in the life 
hereafter. What an untold value all this gives .to the present ! 
And what ! Have we been letting its consecrated moments 
filter like sand through our fingers ? Have we been " seek- 
ing our portion in this life?" toiling up the hill after a 
fancied something, which turns out to be an airy nothing ? 
— seeking to gain the world, and to pay that awful price 
for it — the losing of our own souls ? Have its pleasures 
— its riches — its ambitions — its vanities — been dimming 
to our souls their nobler destinies ? Have the things that 
are seen, been supplanting and superseding the things that 
are not seen ? 

And if the eye of any who know not God, — who are 
yet strangers to the fold and to peace, should fall on 
these pages, — let them not wrest the words of this scrip- 
ture unto their own destruction. Mark, He who utters 
them, does not say regarding you and your sad condition, 
— " I give unto them eternal death!" Xay, nay. God 
gives — God apportions to no one so terrible a destiny. This 
is what He gives. He gives you vessel — oars — sails — chart 
— compass — rudder ; — He points you to the distant har- 
bour; — He warns you of the environing and approaching 
storms. But He tells you, if you sail by His chart you 
will outride them all, and cast anchor in the heavenly 
harbour. What is the conduct of many, in the face of 
all these provisions to insure safety and peace? They 



202 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

fling their ballast into the depths of the sea. They hoist 
their sails, but they are passion. They are guided by 
a compass, but that is the world's opinion. They steer 
by a helm, but that is base expediency. God has given 
them His Bible as their lighthouse, but they are lured 
by the balefires of sin. Unhappy castaway ! had you 
yielded to heavenly influences, your sails would have been 
filled with propitious breezes, which would have wafted you 
safely to the haven. But can you wonder — can you up- 
braid God with your ruin, if you are now found rudder- 
less; with tattered sail and leaking hulk and splintered 
masts — drifting, drifting onwards, amid the howling winds 
and wintry sea of a dark and cheerless eternity ? There- 
fore, while we congratulate Christ's true people on their 
noble heritage of eternal life, see that all this may not be to 
you the forecasting and foreshadowing of eternal darkness 
— of sin, and shame, and everlasting contempt ! See that 
ye are not yourselves responsible for being among the 
hapless ones, who are shut out and excluded for ever from 
the heavenly fold ! i( Many/' we read, on the great day, 
" shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able." The en- 
trance to the sheepfold is open this hour. It is open to 
all who seek it, " By me," says Christ, " if any man 
enter in he shall be saved." But once that final day is 
come, and you are found standing without the fold, Om- 
nipotence itself cannot unlock its closed gate ! The door 
is shut; — the invitation is withdrawn ; — mercy can plead 
no more. " They cannot pass that would come from 
thence!" 



i €x% d k WLnribmx. 



"l HAVE GONE ASTRAY LIKE A LOST SHEEP; SEEK THY SERVANT." — PS. 

4 

cxix. 176. 

" TELL ME, O THOU WHOM MY SOUL LOVETH, WHERE THOU FEEDEST, WHERE 
THOU MAKEST THY FLOCK TO REST AT NOON : FOR WHY SHOULD I BE AS 
ONE THAT TURNETH ASIDE BY THE FLOCKS OF THY COMPANIONS?"— 
SONG OF SOL, L 7. \ 



THE CEY OF A WANDEEER 

We have just been considering, in the preceding pages, • 
that elevating subject, the imperishable life of the be- 
liever; — the inviolable safety and security of the flock 
of the Great Shepherd, 

But, as it has been well remarked, there is often only a 
step between the third heavens and the thorn in the flesh, 
The child of God, triumphing at times in the indestruct- 
ible privileges and blessings of the covenant — saying with 
the psalmist, " The Lord is my life and my salvation, whom 
shall I fear ? the Lord is the strength of my life, of whom 
shall I be afraid?" — may, like that same psalmist, by 
reason of the seductions of temptation from without, or 
from remaining corruption within, be brought to wail 
through anguished tears — " My soul cleaveth unto the 
dust ;" " Iniquities, I must confess, do prevail against me! ;; 

Sad fitfnlness and waywardness of the vacillating, even 
though regenerate heart ! The sheep that has been rescued 
from the pit of destruction, — carried back in the arms of 
the Good Shepherd, caressed and fondled by its Divine De- 
liverer ; with every conceivable motive to follow His steps 
and (< abide in His love;" yet, once more a truant from 
the fold ! This is our only comfort amid human change- 
fulness — the ebbings and flowings in the tide of the spiri- 
tual life,— that we can repose in the faithfulness, veracity, 



206 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

and immutability of Him " with whom is no variableness 
neither shadow of turning." The vessel may, for a while, 
drift from its moorings, but the Eock is immovable. 
" Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down ; for 
the Lord upholdeth him with His hand." " The Loed 
liveth, and blessed be my Eock, and let the God of my 
salvation be exalted." 

In the two portions of Scripture which head this chap- 
ter, we have the record and utterance of such an experi- 
ence ; — the bleat of a wanderer who has strayed from 
the fold — the cry of a child who has strayed from the 
paternal home. Mournful is the theme, to trace the his- 
tory of such aberration ; — to go down with a torch into 
the dark chambers of the soul, and discover the guilty 
secret of this quenchmg of its light. The humbling 
thing about spiritual declension, as we previously inci- 
dentally noted, is the oft-apparent triviality of its cause. 
Just as a child's breath on the window is sufficient to 
dull and obscure the loveliest landscape, — or as that same 
child's breach puts out the lamp or candle as effectually as 
would the sweeping storm; so, little sins obscure the 
windows of the soul, — dim the spiritual and heavenly 
landscape, — put out the lights of faith and love, and leave 
the whole moral being in gloomy darkness. How many 
can trace a long and dreary period of alienation to one 
unhappy incident — one omitted duty — one ebullition of 
temper — one tampering with conscience. Any of these 
may, like the little jutting stone in the path, turn the sheep 
aside from the footsteps of the flock, and from the voice 
and leading of the Shepherd. Slowly, imperceptibly, the 



THE CRY OF A WANDERER 207 

retrograde movement proceeds — slowly, the lethargy 
steals over the spirit. The backslider says, like Samson, 
" I will go out as at other times, and shake myself; and he 
wist not that the Lord had departed from him/' Yes, in 
the case of not a few, that decay of moral health and 
energy, by means of many counterfeits of spiritual life, 
hides its own sad reality from the subject of it. It is like 
that specious &nd fatally common complaint, which simu- 
lates so many of the outward symptoms of health : — the 
bright glow in the cheek, and the lustre in the eye; — ■ 
while all the time, the strength is being undermined, and 
disease is sapping the foundations of the natural life. So it 
is with this consumption of the soul. There is often the 
appearance of spiritual health ; and many are content with 
this name to live, while they are dying or dead — deceiving 
others, and deceiving themselves : the homely figure of 
the prophet Hosea true to the letter — " Gray hairs are 
here and there on Ephraim, and lie hieiv it not/' 

With others, however, the fatal truth cannot be hidden 
or dissembled. The misery of this spiritual declension 
and apostasy cannot be concealed. The soul is only too 
conscious of the self- forfeiture of all its former spiritual 
blessings. From being once well fed — sitting under the 
Beloved's shadow, and catching the falling fruit from the 
laden branches ; — now it is forced to cry with no sembled 
anguish — " My leanness, my leanness ! " Once it was like 
those flowers which open their petals to drink in the dews 
of heaven; but now blighted and drooping, the cup closes, 
and the dew trickles down and falls unblessed on the 
earth ; — or like those plants, once covered with leaves and 



208 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

blossoms, but which have been imprisoned in the dark 
cellar — shut out from air and sunlight, now stretching 
their sickly tendrils towards every chink in the wall — 
gasping and sighing for the genial, loving influences from 

which they are excluded. 

Among other fruitful causes, how often does worldly 
prosperity tend to this lapsing of the soul from God! 
How often do our very outward mercies and blessings 
superinduce this spiritual languor and decay ! It is with 
believers individually, as with the Church collectively ; — 
they are never in a condition less favourable to spiritual 
health and advancement, than when they have no trial 
or cross, to brace their energies and invigorate their 
graces. The soldier gets supine after battle. History 
tells us how the bravest veterans of the great Carthaginian 
general got demoralised and degenerate, when, ' (victory 
over,) they sat down to rejoicing and revelry, before the 
gates of Capua ; they never were the same heroes again. 

On the other hand, trial is often made the means of 
rousing the lethargic soul. Affliction, in its many forms, 
is often instrumental in prompting the cry and the con- 
fession — " I went astray like a lost sheep." Then are we 
brought to see secret sins before undetected; — pride, 
vanity, rebellion against God, — unowned and unacknow- 
ledged mercies, of which Ave have been the daily reci- 
pients. We can imagine that it was in the cold, bleak 
night of the far country — when the sun had gone down — 
in the deep silence of some dreary solitude, that the prodi- 
gal first began to ponder his wretchedness. In that murky 
background, the gleaming memories of happier days were 



THE CRY OF A WANDERER. 209 

contrasted with the husks of the swine, and the garbage 
of the wilderness ; — there it was, that awaking suddenly to 
the consciousness of his misery, he started from his stony 
pillow with the cry, " I perish with hunger :" And so it is 
in the dark night of sorrow — in the solitude of the death- 
chamber and the stricken heart, that many a man awakes 
to the first feeling of the wretchedness of his alienation 
from God, and that the blessed resolve is formed, " I will 
arise, and go to my Father/' ''Before I was afflicted I 
went astray." "Though I walk in the midst of trouble, 
Thou wilt revive me." The mount of " revival " is reached, 
not by walking along the flowery mead, but the steep 
thorny path of " trouble ! " 

But let us pass from the wanderer and the wandering, to 
consider more particularly the wanderer's cry. 

Cast clown, he is not destroyed. The child is still con- 
scious of the yearnings of home-love. The prodigal has not 
buried the remembrances of home affection. The sheep, as 
it roams over the mountains, has not forgotten its shep- 
herd's voice and fold — " Tell me, thou whom my soul 
loveth, where thou feedest — where thou makest thy flock 
to rest at noon." 

Backslider! in the midst of thy guilty departures, canst 
thou make this averment — "0 thou whom my soul loveth?'' 
M Lord, thou knowest all things ; thou knowest that I love 
thee!' " Seek," not a stranger, but "seek thy servant." ' I 
have longed for many things in my seasons of estrangement, 
but none, Saviour God, have ever satisfied me but Thee. 
I have gathered pearls from many oceans, but none have 

o 



210 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

been like the Pearl of Great Price. I have culled sweets 
from many flowers, but no perfume is like that of the Eose 
of Sharon. I have fled to many shelters, — many bowers of 
earthly pleasure have spread over me their canopy, but 
none can compare to the True-'Reh\ge from the storm and 
covert from the tempest ! ' 

Are there any perusing these pages, who feel such to be 
their experience ; — who are sensible of the misery of their 
departure from God; — who, in the retrospect of their spiritual 
life, have the sunny memories of other and brighter days, — 
the spring-time of love, when the garden of the heart was 
green with promise; — whilst now all seems stunted, blanched, 
blighted, barren; like the significant description given by 
the Psalmist — "As the grass upon the house-top which 
withereth before it groweth up, wherewith the mower filleth 
not his hand, nor he that bindeth up the sheaves his-bosom?" 
Melancholy, indeed, is your history. Dare I attempt to 
sketch it? Once you soared on eagle pinions of faith; but 
these have collapsed — they have become leaden wings — and 
you have fallen powerless to the earth. Once you loved 
communion with God, — the unspeakable privilege cf fellow- 
ship with your Heavenly Father. That is now cold and dead, 
— a piece of lifeless formalism. Once you loved prayer ; 
you delighted to touch the golden sceptre, to lay hold of 
the angel and wrestle; but now the soul's sinew is shrunk, 
— your wrestling power is gone ; — the sceptre is still there, 
but you are impotent to reach it. Once you loved the Word, 
— the Scriptures read in the closet and in the sanctuary ; — 
the simplest of sermons in which Christ was preached were 
prized by you. Now the Bible gathers dust on your shelves ; 



THE CRY OF A WANDERER. 211 

— the sanctuary is attended more to criticise than to pro- 
fit — to indulge the itching ear, rather than to benefit the 
needy soul. Once you spent blessed hours of hallowed 
contemplation at the foot of the cross, or walked in Emmaus's 
journeys with your Lord — your heart burning within you, 
while, conscious of His invisible presence and love, He 
talked to you by the way, and opened to you the Scriptures. 
ISTow the world has hidden out the cross, — its din and bustle 
have drowned and overcome the Saviour's voice. You call 
God still your Father; but you have no longer the filial, 
loving, childlike spirit which you once had. The tender- 
ness of conscience is impaired; genuine spirituality is gone. 
The creature has vaulted on the throne of the Creator. 
Harsh thoughts of God have taken the place of loving ones. 
Unkind misconstructions of His ways and dealings have 
taken the place of reverent acquiescence in His sovereign 
will. The scroll of your life of faith, once all illumined 
with red and gold, is now covered with black lettering. 
" Lucifer, son of the morning, how art thou fallen 1" 

But despond not. See, in both motto verses, the secret 
of such a wanderer's return. We have spoken of the sad 
case; let us look to ihe cure. The means of restoration is 
Prayer. It is by seeking anew the long deserted and 
unfrequented mercy-seat. "Seek thy servant." "Tell 
me, thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest." 
In the language of Hosea, addressed to backsliding Israel, 
" Take with you ivords, and turn to the Lord. Say unto 
him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously." 
At that crisis hour of his history, when David was the 
most abject of wanderers, it was prayer which brought 



212 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

him back. His beautiful Fifty-first Psalm is the liturgy 
of a penitent backslider, the loud and agonising cry of 
a wandering sheep. And the Shepherd heard it ! God 
restored his soul, and made good in his experience, as 
in the experience of all wanderers, His own promise, 
"Keturn unto me, and I will return unto you." Do 
not keep back. Do not repress these penitential emo- 
tions, because of the sadness of your declension, and the 
extent of your divergence from the footsteps of the flock. 
Mountains of transgression may seem to separate you from 
the Shepherd. It matters not. If David had been in- 
fluenced by a consideration of the enormity of his sin, be- 
fore coming, in broken-hearted penitence and conviction to 
confess it, he might well have seen in it a wall of separa- 
tion — an unbridged chasm, proclaiming eternal severance 
from the fold. Listen to his plea. Listen to .the back- 
slider's suit. It is a strange and remarkable one, " Pardon 
mine iniquity, FOR IT is great*." Most transgressors would 
deem the greatness of their iniquity the very reason for 
God's withholding pardon. We might have expected to 
hear this presumptuous transgressor wailing out, through 
tears of despair, ' Lord, if my sin had been less heinous 
and aggravated, then I might have dreamt of forgiveness. 
If I had been untaught from my youth, — untutored and 
undisciplined in Thy ways, there might have been excuse or 
palliation for my offences, and room to hope on Thy part 
for compassion and pardon. But I, guilty abuser of privi- 
leges, quencher of heavenly light, faithless requiter of 
abounding mercies, cannot expect, cannot ask Thee, to for- 
give these crimson iniquities. I must be content to be 



THE CEY OF A WANDERER. 213 

an outcast from thy fold for ever/ ~No ! He makes the. 
very greatness of his sin, his plea for the extension of God's 
mercy. With man it would have been different. The 
turpitude of the crime would have closed the door of 
human sympathy and human hope. But God's ways are 
not man's ways, nor God's thoughts man's thoughts. 
"Let me fall into the hands of God, for great are His 
mercies, but let me not fall into the hands of man/'' 
" After Thy loving kindness, have mercy upon me. Accord- 
ing to the multitude of Thy tender mercies, blot out my 
transgressions." " God, be merciful to me, a sinner." 
" For Thy name's sake, Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for 
it is great !" 

Reader, are you conscious that your iniquities have 
thus separated between you and your heavenly Shepherd ? 
Are you conscious thaf you are not now as once you 
were? that you enjoy no longer, as once you did, sensible 
nearness to the mercy - seat ? that you are restraining 
prayer before God ? that the fine edge of conscience is 
blunted ? that, in one word, you have lost ground in the 
Christian life? Arise, confess your sin, mourn your back- 
sliding; and cry for mercy. Slaking a full and unreserved 
confession, the Great Shepherd will not spurn you away. 
He is waiting to be gracious. In the words of the woman, 
of Tekoah, " Yet doth He devise means that His banished 
be not expelled from Him." The Shepherd devises means 
for the reclamation of His erring sheep. He pities the 
backslider ; just as the general on the field of battle pities 
the wounded who are carried bleeding by their comrades to 
the rear. " Go and proclaim these words towards the north, 



214 THE SHEPHERD AXD HIS FLOCK. 

and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel; saith the L 

and I will not cause mine ang: : I 

am merciful, saitli the Lord, and I will not 
ever." May it be yours to experience the ss of 

this true repentance! Yes. Strange as the express 
may seem, the "blessedness of repentance.'" You have seen, 
when the rain and the storm had sj mt their : ;me 

landscape; when the thunder-cloud had j md blue 

vistas had again opened in the sky. and the suu ha I 
forth, silvering the dripping branches, — how th Hand 

grove rang with the song s; — all the sro 

gladsome seemed the notes of music, succeeding the _". >m 
which had so long repressed them. Such is the u _ 
the happiness and joy of the soul, in the i its re- 

storation. Let this be your "new song/ 5 on 1; ring brought 
up from the miry clay, and your feet again set c a fcb 3 Rock 
of Ages, " Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall 
show forth thy praise \" — " The flock of thy heritage which 
dwell solitarily in the wood in the midst of Canned let 
them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of cli" 
(Micah vii. 14.) 

We close with a sentence of solemn admonition. Write 
"Beware'"' on every page of your future spiritual history 
Wanderers once, see to it that you may not be wanderers 
again. ,; Be watchful and sire'nathen the things which re- 
main, that are ready to die." If threatened with sliipwi 
once, before again putting to sea. "strengthen your mast/ 3 — if 
decoyed once within the grim bars of D vabting C :i 

your guard against the tempters with which Giant I ; : spair 
has in these days studded the pilgrim's way. Hear the v : i : :- 



THE CEY OF A WANDER Eli. 215 

of God saying, as to the Clmrch of Ephesus, " Bemeniber, 
therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do 
the first works/' Beware of forfeiting, even for a time, 
God's affection and love. In the case of human affections, 
after the sacredness of a friendship has once been broken, 
it is hard to reunite that broken link. It is hard to for- 
get- the treachery of a trusted friend, or to repose confi- 
dence where confidence has been misplaced and cruelly 
abused or wronged : it is easier to form a new affection 
than to patch up an old one. The same is true with re- 
gard to our relationship to God. It is hard for us to feel 
the tenderness of a first love again, if that love, on our 
part, have undergone coolness or lukewarmness. The 
bitter personal remembrance of having wounded the 
Highest, Truest, and Best of Friends, can never be oblite- 
rated. Peter (fully forgiven, and loving all the more be- 
cause forgiven) could never cancel from his own memory 
the story of his denial, — the deep wound he had inflicted 
on his loving Master ; and he would carry that scar on his 
heart of hearts till the hour of his death ! Beware, too, of 
tampering with aught which may have perilled your peace 
or dulled and deadened the life of God in your soul. Be- 
ware of walking on the edge of the precipice. You may 
escape falling ; but the wiser plan is not to attempt it. 
Beware of walking too near the fire. You may escape the 
flames ; but better not to run the peril of contact. Beware 
of navigating too near the rocks. You may carry your 
vessel through unscathed; but better not run the risk of 
making shipwreck of faith and of a good conscience. Be- 
ware of worldly associates ; — those whose principles and 



216 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

fellowship are apt to act as drags on the wheels of the 
spiritual life, and to retard the soul's advancement God- 
ward and heavenward. Cultivate the friendship of Christ's 
true people. What was the reply to this wail of the 
wanderer in the Song, when, in pursuit of her lost Shep- 
herd and Lord, she exclaims, "Why should I be as one 
that ttirneth aside by the flocks of thy companions ?" It 
was this — " Go thy way by the footsteps of the flock, and 
feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents." 

And while distrusting yourself, be it yours, with the 
Psalmist, to look away from your own weakness and 
wandering, to the Shepherd of Israel, as alike your Re- 
storer and Keeper. How precious the double name, — the 
double assurance ! He is the Restorer. " Seek thy ser- 
vant/' says the penitent suppliant. Well did he know 
that if the lost one is to be found, — if the wandering sheep 
is to be brought to the fold again, the arms of the Good 
Shepherd can alone effect the restoration, — " He restoreth 
my soul." But He is more than this. " Seek Thy ser- 
vant," and after seeking, keep Thy servant ! " The Lord is 
thy Keeper!' " He that keepeth Israel shall not slumber!" 
What can we desire more than this ? All-sufficiency to re- 
store, and All-sufficiency to keep ; mercy to pardon, and 
grace to help. " Give ear, Shepherd of Israel, thou that 
leadest Joseph like a flock ; thou that dwellest between 
the cherubims, shine forth. Before Ephraim, and Benja- 
min, and Manasseh, stir up thy strength, and come and 
save us ! " 

Backslider ! a gracious Saviour thus gently chicles thee, 
"Will ye also go away?" "Ye did run well, who did 



THE CRY OF A WANDERER. 217 

hinder you?" ISTo longer hazard your safety, or endanger 
your peace. "There are some sheep," says a traveller 
familiar with every phase of modern Palestine life, " in- 
curably reckless, who stray far away, and are often utterly 
lost. I have repeatedly seen a silly goat or sheep, running 
hither and thither, and bleating piteously after the lost 
flock, only to call forth, from their dens, the beasts or 
prey, or to bring up the lurking thief, who quickly 
quiets its cries in death." Although we cannot think 
of any true believer, however sad his wanderings, as 
perishing finally, — consigned to hopeless and irremedi- 
able ruin ; the earthly picture and symbol may well 
suggest solemn thought to all who are " ready to die," and 
who, by their own reckless waywardness and backsliding 
are madly braving the perils of distance and alienation 
from the fold of God. Return, without delay, to the seek- 
ing Shepherd ; rekindle the smouldering fires on the for- 
saken altar, If it has been for a time, winter, — spiritual 
winter, with your soul, — all apparently lifeless and dead — 
every living grace drooping under the conscious absence 
of the true Sun; — anticipate the springtime of reviving 
energy. Cease not until you can respond to the gladden- 
ing notes of the revival hymn of the olden Church, " The 
winter is past, the rain is over and gone ; the flowers ap- 
pear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is 
come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." 



%\t femWing Jflcrrk &Qmhxttb. 



" FEAR NOT, LITTLE FLOCK ; FOR IT IS YOUR FATHER'S GOOD PLEASURE TO 
GIVE YOU THE KINGDOM." — LUKE XII. 32 



THE TKEMBLING FLOCK COMFORTED. 

Here is another of the many precious "voices of the 
Shepherd." It may be regarded as an answer to the cry 
of the wanderer, which formed the subject of last chapter. 
A little flock; a fearful flock; — such is Christ's own 
description of " His people and the sheep of His pasture. 1 ' 
But He lulls their trembling apprehensions, by pointing 
them away from the sorrowing present, and the chequered 
future of earth, to the bright, unsinning, unsorrowing, 
glorious future of Heaven : — " It is your Father's good 
pleasure to give you the kingdom." 

There is something striking and significant in the mixed 
metaphor which is here employed. Though our Lord in 
these solacing words to His disciples, and to His Church in 
all ages, addresses them as His " Flock," He does not add, 
" It is your Shepherd's" but " it is your Father's good 
pleasure." The two favourite emblems of Old and New 
Testament are thus brought in conjunction. The well- 
known pastoral symbol of the one, is coupled with the 
paternal symbol, which belongs pre-eminently, we may 
almost say exclusively, to the other. " Give ear, Shep- 
herd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock," was 
the form of adoration familiar to the saints and patriarchs 
of the former economy ; and while, as we have abundantly 
seen, that Shepherd-emblem is not superseded in the gospel, 



220 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

but rather retained and lovingly enshrined in the utter- 
ances alike of inspired apostles and their Lord ; there is 
yet superadded this new formula of invocation for "the 
children of the kingdom/' " Our Father, who art in 
heaven." *» 

" It is your Fathers good pleasure !" Had that king- 
dom of future bliss been the bestowment of God as a 
munificent Sovereign, Ave could not have failed to prize 
the honour. But how is its value enhanced, when it comes 
to us as the gift and pledge of a Father s love ; when the 
feelings which the Almighty Donor wishes those whom He 
has served heirs to its riches to cherish regarding Him, are 
not those of awe towards an august Potentate, but of love 
and affection towards a tender Parent. " I will be a Father 
unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith 
the Lord Almighty." 

We shall not reiterate, what has been fully dwelt upon 
in former chapters, the various kinds and occasions of mis- 
giving and " fear " which tend to discourage and terrify 
the little flock in tf the way of the wilderness/' Many of 
these form a necessary portion of their probation disci- 
pline. As shadows and half-tints are needed to give bold- 
ness and strength to the brighter parts of a painting, so in 
the spiritual life-picturfi, these are the shadings required 
to give expression and depth to the whole. 

We shall only advert, at present, to one additional cause 
of apprehension which not unfrequehtly exercises a depress- 
ing influence on the minds of God's people, in the prospect 
of their Father's kingdom — viz., the sense of their niter un- 
fitness and unwortliiness to enter it; — the discrepancy be- 



THE TREMBLING FLOCK COMFORTED. 221 

fcween the holiness which becometh that kingdom, and the 

w?z holiness, — the remanent corruption and vileness, of their 
imperfectly sanctified hearts. This is ofttimes their inward 
musing. — the soliloquy of no feigned humility : — ' How 
can we, with all our wretched frailties and shortcomings, 
dream of admission into a heaven of unsullied purity, un- 
dimmed and undefiled by the intrusion of one unhallowed 
thought! The great Shepherd-Father may admit other 
sheep into His Eternal Fold, other children to His Eternal 
Home ; but we stand debarred for ever from entering its 
gates, or expatiating in its bliss/ 

Nay, " fear not ;" for, 

First, amid ail your conscious unworthiness, remember, 
you are His children. The soiled garments of earth which 
you may carry to the very portals of glory, cannot alter a 
Father's feelings towards you, or lead Him to belie or forego 
His promises. If there be joy in heaven (and that joy deep- 
est in the Father s heart) over the sinner in the hour of his 
repentance ; what will be that joy in the hour of his glori- 
fication, when, stripped of his travel-worn, sin- stained 
raiment, all his truant - wanderings, and estrangements, 
and backsliclings at an end, he enters the threshold of the 
paternal Home ! 

We have read somewhere a story in real life, regarding 
a long missing child, the heir to vast estates. The tale 
described, how this innocent little one had been decoyed 
from the parental roof, and was last seen when a tribe of 
gypsies had been prowling about the neighbourhood of 
his princely home. Golden bribes had a hundred times been 
offered for his restoration; but the cruel mystery remained 



222 THE SHEPHEKD AND HIS FLOCK. 

hopelessly unsolved, all efforts were in vain to recover 
the valued life. The anguished parents, seeing the pride 
and hope of their household wrenched from their grasp, 
abandoned themselves to inconsolable grief. One day, as 
the family carriage was, at a little distance, bearing along 
the highway these two saddened hearts, a gang of the wan- 
dering race were passing by. In their midst, with a heavy 
burden on his shoulders, and attired in tatters, an eye and 
a countenance met theirs which could not be mistaken. 
A shriek of mingled terror and delight was heard ; the 
mother, leaping in frantic joy from her seat, had, in a 
moment, that aggregate of rags and squalor in her arms ; 
her son, who had been long dead, was alive again ; long lost, 
he was again found. What signified to her these years of 
degradation ! It was her beloved boy, by whose cradle she 
had, in days gone by, sung her lullaby, and weaved visions 
of fond hope ; and though the golden ringlets were now 
matted with filth, the tiny hands hardened and begrimed 
with boyish drudgery, and the face browned and weather- 
beaten by exposure to the hot sun by day, and the cold, 
dewy, houseless night; yet there he was, her own, her 
only one. Yonder castle, looking forth on the wide de- 
mesne, kept high festal holiday that evening. Servants 
were gathered, and menials were feasted, and the firesides 
of the poor were made brighter and happier by the recovery 
of the wanderer ! 

So shall it be with the children of the heavenly king- 
dom, in entering the heavenly Home. What though, to 
the last, by these rags and tatters of nature,— these souls 
begrimed with the remains of sin, we belie our lofty birth- 



THE TREMBLING FLOCK COMFORTED. 223 

right, and render ourselves all unworthy of so glorious an 
inheritance ; — " doubtless thou art our Father, though 
Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us 
not." That hallowed word is beautifully represented by 
the Prophet Jeremiah as forming the passport to the 
little flock at the gate of heaven : — its utterance, in the 
case of those destitute of all personal claims to admission, 
unlocking the golden portals, and conferring right of 
entrance. " How shall I put thee among the children, 
and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the 
hosts of nations ? And I said, Thou shalt call me my 
Father!" 

But farther, " Fear not, little flock," for your Shepherd- 
Father will prepare you for the kingdom. A glorious 
change will pass on you* now partially renovated spirit at 
death. u It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we 
know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him." 
These, at present, drooping, lagging, grovelling souls, will, 
by a transforming process which we cannot now venture 
to imagine or comprehend, be made meet for the holy 
Heaven of a holy God. 

Go to the garden, from which winter has just been re- 
moving its icy mantle — and over which the first breath of 
genial spring has been passing. Watch on the gravel- 
walk or nestling on the rockery, that hideous, repulsive 
insect; — you half wonder how God, the infinite Archi- 
tect, in the plenitude of His skill, could not have devised 
something more beauteous than that little mass of inert 
life. But bend your steps to that same sunny nook when 



224 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

the balmy zephyrs of a July morning are wafted by. 
What see you now ? That black torpid shell lias unlocked 
its secret : — that little prison-house has sent forth a joyous 
captive, radiant with beauty. See it with spangled body 
and golden wings, revelling amid the luscious sweets and 
the play of sunshine — each flower opening its cup an.d 
making it welcome to its daintiest treasures. What a 
feeble image of the transformed, metamorphosed spirit, in 
that hour when, life's winter-storms all past, it bursts its 
prison-bars — "leaves its encumbering clay;" and, gifted 
with angel-wings, soars aloft to "summer high/'' in the 
bliss of the beatific presence ! Meanwhile, fear not. 
" thou of little faith, wherefore dost thou doubt ? " " God 
will perfect that which concerneth you." In that last 
solemn moment — " in the twinkling of an eye " — He will 
fit you, by " the working of His mighty power/' for taking 
your place among the spirits of the just made perfect, and 
for being one of the rejoicing multitude who are "without 
fault before the throne/' The gifted author of the u Pil- 
grim's Progress " represents Mr Feeble-mind and Mr 
Eeady-to-halt, after all their timorous thoughts, as safe 
at last. He describes the post as sounding his horn at 
their chamber doors. " I am come to thee/' says the post- 
man, addressing the latter — "I am come to thee from 
Christ, whom thou hast followed on crutches. He expects 
thee at His table to sup with Him in His kingdom ; " and 
then he pictures him, on reaching the brink of the river, 
as throwing away his crutches. So will it be with many 
of God's true people, who are indulging needless appre- 
hensions, because of the oppression of the enemy. If 



THE TREMBLING FLOCK COMFORTED. 225 

fearful now, the day is coming when, like the pilgrim. 
Hebrews of old, you will stand triumphant on the further 
shore, exulting in the truth of your heavenly Father's 
assurance, which you may at present be so slow to credit — 
"Your enemies whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see 
them again no more for ever." You may now be wailing, 
in notes of sadness, your weakness and feebleness. Like 
some captive bird, you may fancy that your wings are dis- 
abled, your energies cramped and paralysed, your song 
silenced. But not so. In God's own time the cage will 
be opened, and on new-born wings of faith and love, you 
will go singing up to the gate of Paradise ! 

Finally. — Believers, rejoice in the assurance, not only of 
certainty that you shall enter the heavenly fold, but that 
once entered, "ye shall go no more out." The Father ,rho 
" gives " you the kingdom will keep you in it. Not one 
member of the little flock will ever stray from the celes- 
tial pastures ; — not one member of the glorified family will 
ever be missed from the household; — none will ever go 
forth weeping as from the gates of the first Eden. How 
different our Fathers house on high — from the father's 
home on earth ! — As years roil on, how sad and mournful 
the family blanks ! The empty arm-chair, where the 
venerable parent used to sit, tells of one vacancy : the 
closed boot case with the dust-covered school volumes 
tells of another : the unused toy — : (most touching of all) — ■ 
tells of another: that portrait on the wall, on which ever 
and again a tearful glance is cast, tells of another. The 
once joyous register in the old family Bible is blotted and 
saddened with many a mournful entry ; — or rather, these 

p 



226 THE SHEPHEKD AND HIS FLOCK. 

are transferred to the marble memorials of buried affection, 
crowding the silent land of forgetfulness. But not so in 
that blessed kingdom. There, there will be no blanks — 
no missing names — no harrowing separations — no memories 
of buried love. No citizen of the new Jerusalem will ever be 
called to surrender his charter-rights. The road to the city 
and the streets of the city, are paved with golden promises 
of the God who cannot lie; — golden tower on golden tower 
of immutability and truth render inviolable the safety of its 
glorified inhabitants. Not only will an abundant entrance 
at last be ministered, but once ministered, it will be for 
ever secured. The saying of the Good Shepherd regarding 
the flock on earth, will be equally applicable to the flock 
of heaven — "Even so, it is not the will of your Father 
which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should 
perish !" 

One word in closing. Though this kingdom — this heri- 
tage of the little flock, as we have seen, is a covenant-gift 
— sealed and secured by the eternal love and promise of 
God the Father, Ave repeat the caution and qualification 
stated in a recent chapter ; its privileges and immunities 
can be enjoyed only by those who " strive to enter in." 
"The kingdom of heaven/' says the Divine Purchaser, 
"suffereth violence, and the violent take it by storm." 
The processes in the kingdom of grace, as in the kingdom 
of nature, are developed and matured by the diligent use 
of appointed means. Indeed, the commonest occurrences 
and transactions of every-day life remind us that we are 
under an economy of means, and that by foregoing or reject- 



THE TREMBLING FLOCK COMFORTED. 227 

ing the employment of these, we are sure to forfeit the end. 
A rope will save a drowning man, — but he must stretch out 
his hand to grasp it, — otherwise he is lost. The fire-escape 
will save a man enveloped in the flames : the iron ladder 
is shot up by the side of the burning pile — and the sleeper, 
roused by the crackling fires, is told to rush to the pro- 
vided means of safety : but saved he cannot be, if he fold 
his arms in indifference, and resign himself to his fate. 
The man basking on the sea-beach on a summer day, 
when the tide is out, is warned that if he continue where 
he is, and fall asleep, the rising waters will inevitably 
overtake him : were he so foolish as to laugh to scorn 
the warning, we know that nothing could prevent the re- 
lentless, remorseless waves sweeping him away. God puts 
us, like Jacob, at the ladder s base, and says— f There is 
the ladder of salvation ; Jbut if you would reach heaven, 
you must climb it.' In providing a Zoar for Lot, He could 
easily have commissioned the angels to bear him mira- 
culously through the air, and deposit him in safety on 
the adjoining hill. But He tells him to arise ; and, staff 
in hand, to climb to the refuge, — " Haste thee, flee for thy 
life." Eeader, be up and doing ; while the gift of the 
kingdom is God's, yet, in one sense, it rests with ourselves 
whether we are to be crowned or beggared. The throne 
of that kingdom God promises only " to him that over- 
eometh." " Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give 
thee a crown of life." 



%\t Jfkxh passing %0UjgIj % Urileg 



" YEA, THOUGH I WALK THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH, 
I WILL FEAR NO EVIL : FOR THOU ART WITH ME ; THY ROD AND THY 
STAFF THEY COMFORT ME." — PS. XXUL L 



THE FLOCK PASSING THLOUGH THE VALLEY 
OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 

There is perhaps no verse in Scripture with which we are 

more familiar than that which heads this chapter ; — no 
Bible -figure which has made a more lasting; and indelible 
impression. The picture of life, with a dark valley at the 

end of it, was hung up long ago, in the halls of memory, 

when infancy first learned to repeat or sing the Shepherd- 
psalm. Other mental scenes and pictures have come and 
gone, — other Bible symbols may have made a transient 
impression, — but this remains. And as Luther ever asso- 
ciated the appearance and scenery of the figurative Death- 
valley with that of his own vale of Augsburg, so each 
Bible reader has doubtless had his own mental picture 
suggested by some scene of his youth,— perhaps some dark, 
lonesome Highland glen, with mist and rain-clouds muf- 
fling the mountain-tops, and a sluggish stream, amid tine 
deepening shades of eventide, wending below. 

We need not stop to inquire or conjecture what spot or 
locality suggested to David the world-wide emblem; — 
what his prototype was of that Valley which, through his 
inspired lips, has now found an enduring place in all 
Christian teaching and symbolism, His thoughts may 
possibly have reverted to some scene memorable in the 
days of his boyhood, when he fed his father's flocks in the 



230 TIIE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

valleys around Bethlehem ; — some deep gorge among the 
mountains of Judah, through which amid gloom and storm 
he had himself conducted his fleecy charge.* Or if, as 
some are disposed rather to conjecture, the psalm were 
written in his declining years, during the rebellion of 
Absalom, when he took refuge beyond Jordan, — he may 
have thought of some glen amid the fastnesses of Gilead, 
through which he had seen a shepherd conducting his 
flock out to the pastures of the wilderness. Or in the 
same spot of his exile, where the border river frets its way 
along a tortuous valley overhung with precipices, he may 
have seen the patient shepherd with the sheep slung on 
his shoulder, and with rod and staff in hand, fording the 
impetuous stream. One or all of these familiar incidents 
may have presented to his mind the picture of Death 
— as a dark valley through which the flock of God have 
to pass, on their way to the heavenly fold. 

But be this as it may, the image, at all events, has 
passed into all languages and all hearts. How many 



* " Soon after leaving the plain of Sharon, and beginning to ascend the 
6 hill country of Judea,' we entered "Wady Aly. "We pursued our course 
here for some time along the dry bottom of the valley, over which a tor- 
rent flows in winter. It is a long, deep ravine, extremely wild and dreary 
on both sides. It is sometimes so narrow as scarcely to allow the traveller 
to pass between the rocky walls which enclose it. In some places these 
mount up so high with overhanging crags, and are so thickly shaded at the 
top with clumps of bushes, as to spread a gloom — a sort of twilight — over 
the chasm below. It may have been David's familiarity with such scenes 
which led him to employ the expressive imagery of the 23d Psalm. . . . 
The appearance of Wady Aly brought to mind the psalmist's language the 
more readily, because I noticed here and there, on the hill sides, flocks of 
goats and sheep feeding on the shrubbery, or wandering from place to place 
under the eye of the watchful shepherd." — Professor HacJcett's Illustrations. 



THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 231 

tears has this one verse dried ! How many eyes, when 
dimmed by the haze of death to other familiar scenes, 
— when the faces of loved relatives were eclipsed in the 
gathering darkness ; — how many eyes have gazed on this 
valley, made radiant with a presence and companionship 
better than all earthly friends ! How often has the ear 
drunk in the heavenly music of this sublime soliloquy, or 
the faltering tongue lisped it, until the note of the earthly 
psalm blended with the songs of the seraphim ! 

Come and let us gaze on the picture. Let us stand by 
the mouth of this Valley, under the solemn conviction 
that we must one clay tread it. Shall it be with or with- 
out the Heavenly Guide? The other expressions of the 
psalm may not come home to us. We may, alas ! know 
nothing of " the Lord our Shepherd." We may be strangers 
to "the green pastures and*still waters;"' — the restoring of 
the backslider; and the leading in the paths of righteous- 
ness and peace. But " the Valley of deathshade " all must 
tread. We imagine it, with reference to ourselves, (and 
so it is,) a solitary valley; but in reality it is ever densely 
thronged, — filled with a continuous stream of human 
beings. It is computed, that every hour upwards of 3000 
of our fellow-creatures cross its entrance. 3000 pallid 
pilgrims are hourly crowding and hurrying along its silent 
gorges ! Let us visit the place, and ponder whether we be 
ready to join that band of silent travellers. 

The verse suggests three topics for consideration : The 
Valley, the Presence, and the Twofold Prop. 
The Valley.—" The valley of the shadow of death." 



232 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

Death is a gloomy experience even to the believer. They 
are false to the deepest and truest emotions and sensibilities 
of humanity, who would venture to aver otherwise. We 
must not attempt, even in the case of those who have 
"gotten the victory over death/' falsely to gild the tomb, 
and to strew flowers around the sepulchre. Death, as the 
wages of sin, even to the Christian, is an enemy. All 
have a natural dread of death — a natural shrinking from 
dissolution. You may get at times some bold, defiant 
spirits — some hardened desperadoes in guilt — who, with 
seared consciences, can meet their end without a shud- 
der. Such wicked "have no bands in their death, their 
strength is firm." But these exceptional cases do not 
affect the great law of common humanity — " Skin for skin, 
all that a man hath will he give for his life/' It must 
be, it is a solemn thing, when that which we have often 
spoken of, thought of, tried to realise, has really overtaken 
us. When we feel the dimming of the eye, the dreamy 
insensibility, the gathering darkness, the prospect of sever- 
ance from all that has long bound us to life ; and going 
on the long voyage to that strange land, from which no 
voyager that ever set sail has returned. It is not poetry, but 
nature which dictates the words — " It is a dread and awful 
thing to die/' But, whilst the believer, as a member of our 
common humanity — a child of our common nature — in- 
stinctively recoils from death : as a child of God, a child of 
grace, he can say, " I ivill fear no evil! 7 Observe how beau- 
tifully and significantly the psalmist speaks of death while 
looking to his Covenant-Shepherd. He calls it not " the 
Valley of death/' but the " Valley of the shadow of death." 



THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 233 

The substance of death is taken away, and the shadow only 
remains. To the believer, the King of Terrors is a van- 
quished enemy. The iron crown has been plucked from 
his brow and rolled in the dust. We know not if he who 
sang this Shepherd-song knew by prophetic teaching all 
the wondrous secret of that conquest ; but ive, at least, in 
taking his words into our lips, can weave into them a 
gospel meaning. We can go to the sepulchre of Jesus 
and see the grim foe chained as a trophy to the chariot 
wheel of the conquering Saviour. Blessed truth ! Christ, 
by dying, has taken the sting from death and cast it into 
the flames of His sacrifice. He is sublimely represented, 
in the ages of a past eternity, as looking down the long 
vista of the future ; His eye settles on a world loaded in 
chains, and its millions doomed to everlasting destruc- 
tion. In holy ecstasy Hg exclaims, as longing, if pos- 
sible, to annihilate intervening ages, in order that He 
might complete the conquest, " I will ransom them 
from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from 
death. death, I will be thy plagues ! grave, I will be 
thy destruction I" By His vicarious sacrifice and suffer- 
ings as a Surety-Saviour, He has flooded the Valley with 
light. The dark rolling mists have resolved themselves 
into golden clouds. The apostle, in speaking of the wages 
of sin, takes no account of temporal death — the death of 
the body — the crumbling of the outward, perishable, cor- 
ruptible framework. That is a mere transient incident in 
the believer's existence, — what the best of the old commen- 
tators calls " a parenthesis in his being," With eternal 
death and death's Conqueror in his eye, he exclaims, 



234 THE SHEPHEED AND HIS FLOCK. 

" Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death !" Can we say, 
in the prospect of that solemn hour, " I will fear no evil ? " 
It is seated at the foot of the cross of Calvary, and enter- 
ing the Saviours vacant tomb, that we can echo the same 
apostle's challenge, " I am persuaded that . . . death shall 
not separate us from the love of God which is in Christ 
Jesus our Lord." " Thanks be to God who giveth us the 
victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ ! " 

Our next topic is the Shepherd's presence — " Thou art 
with me! 9 Here is another element of support in passing 
through the Valley ; — not merely the blessed persuasion that 
the curse of death, as one of the penal consequences of the 
fall, has been removed and cancelled, but there is the pro- 
mised assurance of a real companionship in that closing 
scene. The Shepherd, who has gone before the flock in the 
wilderness, will not forsake them in the swellings of Jordan. 

And this is no mystical figure — no mere poetical or 
sentimental illusion. It is a wondrous fact. Thousands 
who have passed through the Valley can bear witness to it, 
— the felt nearness of the Saviour. No one who has had 
any experience of deathbeds but can testify, that there is 
often the sublime consciousness of a Presence there — as 
if the dying pilgrim rested on a living Arm, and that 
Valley became a Peniel, where, like the patriarch, the 
wrestling soul saw God face to face ! 

How can we with sure warrant look forward to a similar 
experience ? It is by having God as our Shepherd noiu, if 
we would have Him as our Shepherd then. What was it 
that gave David this confidence in the prospect of treading 



THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 235 

the Valley of death? It was the conscious nearness — the 
realised presence of that Shepherd in life. He was even 
then rejoicing in this companionship and love. See how 
near he felt Him to be ! Observe the phraseology of the 
verse — the form of utterance of this sheep of the ancient 
Hebrew fold. It is net " I will fear no evil, for Thou art 
to be with me," nor is it " for God is with me," but <( Thou 
art with me/ 5 He seems to look up with confiding faith 
to Him who was even then at his side. He speaks not of 
a remote Being, who would meet him at the valley-gates, 
— a mere o;uide through the gloom of that strange gome at 
the end of life, but who at other times is unknown and 
distant. It is the Friend he has known and confided in so 
long. It is the Shepherd of whom in the opening strain of 
the song he said, that Shepherd is mine — " The Lord is my 
Shepherd." Jt is He whose guiding hand had led him by the 
green pastures and the still waters, and the paths of righte- 
ousness. Let us not delude ourselves with the thought that 
a God unknown and unsought now, will be found at a dying 
hour ; that we can insult our Shepherd by refusing His 
guidance and companionship till we reach the very confines 
of the Valley, and then give to Him the dregs of a worn 
life — the remnants of a withered love ! If we would have 
peace and comfort in the thought of that last day's jour- 
ney, let us test ourselves with the question — " Can I even 
now look up to the face of the Lord my Shepherd and say, 
' Thou aet with me V " 

And who is this who is specially the Shepherd and 
Companion and Guide of His flock in their journey 
through the valley-gloom ? It is He of whom we have 



236 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

found it elsewhere said, " He goetli before them/' Cheer- 
ing thought to the dying believer— th ere is One with him 
who has known that valley, by having Himself trodden 
it ; One who has experienced far more terrific shadows than 
ever can fall upon His people. When He trode it — He 
trocle the wine-press — He trode the valley — " alone." JN T o 
star glimmered on His path — no rainbow gleamed through 
the misty storm-clouds. The words awoke only their own 
lonely echoes, — " My God ! my God ! why hast thou for- 
saken me V Christ has sanctified that Valley ; — He has 
left in it the print of His footsteps ; — He has been there, as 
elsewhere, a Brother man. He stoops from His throne in 
Heaven, and whispers in the ear of every pilgrim of mor- 
tality, " Fear not ! I am He that liveth and was dead !" * 

Let us pass'to the remaining topic — the twofold sup- 
poet. " Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me," Oriental 

* " Come down to the river. There is something going forward worth 
seeing. Yon shepherd is about to lead his flock across. . . . Some enter 
the stream boldly and come straight across. These are the loved ones of 
the flock, who keep hard by the footsteps of the shepherd. . . . And now 
others enter, but in doubt and alarm. Far from their guide, they miss 
the ford and are carried down the river — some more, some less, and yeb 
one by one they all struggle over and make good their landing. The weak 
one yonder will be swept quite away. . . . But no : the shepherd himself 
leaps into the stream, lifts it into his bosom, and carries it tremblingly to 
the shore. . . . Can you watch such a scene, and not think of that Shep- 
herd who leadeth Joseph like a flock, and of another river which all His 
sheep must cross ? He, too, goes before ; and, as in the case of this flock, 
they who keep near Him fear no evil. They hear His sweet voice saying, 
' When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee ; and through 
the floods, they shall not overflow thee.' . "With eye fastened on Him, they 
scarcely see the stream or feel its cold, threatening waves." — The Land and 
the Book. 



THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 237 

writers tell us that the shepherds of the East have gener- 
ally two staves — one for counting the sheep, the other, with 
a crook at the end of it 3 to assist in rescuing them from any 
perilous position, if they fall over the precipice or are 
swept down the stream. 

These two props may be taken symbolically to de- 
note the rod of Faith and the staff of the Promises. As 
Moses smote the waters of the Eed Sea with his rod, and 
these divided, so that the people went through dry shod ; — 
so when the believer comes to the typical Jordan in the 
Dark Valley, Faith smites with its all-conquering rod the 
threatening waves, and he passes through. 

" Let Faith exalt her joyful voice, 
And thus begin to sing, 
Grave, where is thy triumph now, 
And where, Death, thy sting ? " 

And what is this Faith which thus waves her triumphal rod, 
and sings her triumphal song ? but just that elevating prin- 
ciple elsewhere spoken of as " the substance of things hoped 
for, the evidence uf things not seen;" which enables the be- 
liever to penetrate the future, and to regard death and its 
accompaniments only as a narrow river lying between him 
and the true land of Promise ? 

But besides the Rod of Faith, there is the Staff of the 
Promises. Without something to guide us in crossing the 
muddy, swollen stream, we may cut the feet on the rugged 
rocks, or slip on the rounded stones, or sink in the de- 
ceptive holloAvs. The staff enables us to find sure footing, 
and in safety to reach the opposite bank. So it is with 
the Christian in the turgid river of death. Without his 



238 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

staff lie might he engulfed by the raging waters. But 
this staff of GocTs promises ensures his safety. He feels 
step by step for the solid rock. " The Lord upholdeth 
him with his right hand ! " 

And here again, let us observe, it was the present lean- 
ing on the rod and staff which gave David the sure guar- 
antee of comfort at the last. He does not say, " They 
shall comfort me," — as if this rod and staff were something 
unknown in the wilderness, which the Angel of Death 
gave to help him through the closing scene of all. Xo. 
" They comfort me." ' They are mine now. I am leaning 
on them every step of my heavenward way ; and the props 
I so value now, will not fail me then/ 

And was the psalmist deceived ? Did this song of life 
prove a delusion when the hour of death came ? Could he 
sing it so long as his journey was carpeted with flowers, and 
radiant with sunshine ? but did his faith forsake him, 
and his rod and staff give way, and his song melt into a 
wail of terror, when the shadows fell around? We have his 
last words recorded. We have the very hymn which this 
Hebrew minstrel sang, when the valley-gloom was begin- 
ning to darken his path, and the sound of the waters of 
death fell on his ear; — "He hath made with me an ever- 
lasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure. This is 
all my salvation, and all my desire." 

And God is still faithful who promised, rt As thy days, 
so shall thy strength be." There is no part of that pro- 
mise more faithfully fulfilled than in His giving dying 
grace for a dying clay. Often have we seen those who, 
during life, shrank at the thought of the dark valley, — who 



THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 239 

trembled as they grasped the staff in the prospect of dis- 
solution,— through fear of death, all their lifetime sub- 
ject to bondage, — yet, when the Valley is reached, the 
clouds seen in the distance are glorified with heavenly 
light ; their terrors are at an end ; the storm is changed 
into a calm ; they " fall asleep." The fruit drops when it 
is ripe. As we have seen it somewhere finely said, God 
gives a parable in nature for those who have an unneces- 
sary dread of death. Try to wrench the foliage off a 
tree — strip it of its verdant leaves where summer is "not 
yet." They resist your efforts ; or, if they be removed, you 
leave a gash and wound where the immature unripe leaf 
has been forced away. But suffer these same leaves to 
grow, till autumn has covered them with golden glory and 
they have fulfilled their uses, and see how gently they fall ! 
Xo rude blast is needed to sweep among the branches of 
the forest : at the touch of evening's gentle zephyr they 
strew the ground. So it is with believers ripe for heaven, 
who have finished and fulfilled their earthly destiny. In 
life's autumn evening death comes, but he comes like a 
gentle zephyr. The golden leaves drop without effort from 
the earthly bough. How gentle that dismissal of the 
spirit in the silent chamber of dissolution ! " Our friend 
Lazarus sleepeth." " He was not, for God took him." 

We close with two practical thoughts. 

1. Ponder our 'personal interest in this subject. Let 
each think, f That Dark Valley must be trodden by me ! 1 
may not have another inch or acre in this world I can call 
my own ; but that common heritage shall at last be mine, 



240 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

"the house appointed for all living/" Ay, and not only 
so; but, in a solemn sense, we have all already entered 
that Valley. Life is but a highway leading to death. Sin 
has served us heirs to these gloomy mansions. That in- 
fant's wailing cry is the first projected shadow of the Valley. 
That playful child's tottering steps are on the way to the 
Valley. That youth in the pride of early life, if he had eyes 
to see it, could descry the Valley in the blue hazy distance, 
and, as he proceeds on the journey, it will get nearer and 
nearer. The path of honour — riches — ambition — glory — 
'leads but to the grave !' 

And you who have passed life's xnid : day, how befitting 
especially that you should often and solemnly meditate on 
the gradual approach of that night of darkness ! How im- 
portant now, really to ascertain whether you have in truth 
found your Shepherd-Guide : how important to cleave 
more closely to Him as the evening shadows are beginning 
to fall ! The sheep, in broad day and in the open common, 
fancies itself independent of the shepherd. But when the 
sun is set, and the howl of the wolf is heard, and night 
dulls the landscape, how needful to keep near his side ! So 
be it with you. As the shadows of life's closing day are 
beginning to fall, seek to cling more closely to your never- 
failing Protector and Guide. Have the staff of promises 
ever nigh at hand ; that, when, like aged Jacob, you come to 
a dying hour, you may lean on that staff, recounting the 
Divine faithfulness — glorying in the Divine presence — say- 
ing, " I have waited for thy salvation, God." 

2. Connect the Valley with the Heaven to which it leads. 



THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 241 

That Valley of the Shadow of Death is like the Valley of 
Aehor, spoken of in Hosea : — It is "a door of hope." Achor 
was one of the entrance-ravines from the wilderness to the 
Promised Land. Death is the valley leading to the true 
Canaan : or, to employ a homely illustration, it is like 
emerging from some long tunnel, after miles of gloomy 
darkness, into the bright sunshine of some festive city, 
whose bells are ringing their merry peals, and in whose 
streets gay groups are gathered. It is the great festive day 
of heaven — " the city which hath 'foundations/' A moment 
before, in closing our eyes on the earthly scene, our 
ears listened to stifled sobs ; now, we hear the bells of 
glory ringing the joyous chime, — " there shall be no 
more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there 
be any more pain, for the former things are passed away ! " 
Let us ever view death as the entrance into life — the 

i 

exodus of the soul from its bondage to the true Canaan. 
Let us not misname death by calling it " dissolution ; " 
and the grave, " the long home." Our loved and lost, if 
they have died in Christ, have only then in truth begun 
their real life. Death is to them the birthday of their 
everlasting joys. A dying chamber is generally full of tears. 
To them it is rather full of angels. We do not call that 
dying in nature, when we see the beauteous virgin blossom 
of early spring fall from the fruit tree. That fruit is not 
destroyed. It has not perished. Nay, the dropping of 
these delicate blossoms indicates only a step in its further 
development— a step onward in its progress to perfection. 
So, when loved ones drop their blossoms in the grave, 
it is only that they may expand in fuller and nobler 

Q 



242 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

proportions in a heavenly world. The blossoms of the 
earthly spring-time are gone. They lie withering in the 
ground. But the immortal fruit remains, and that is im- 
perishable ! 

Beader, again let me ask, Are you prepared for that 
solemn hour, which must sooner or later come, when life 
with all its opportunities and responsibilities is at an end ; 
— when we shall feel that our moments are numbered — 
that the sand-glass has reached its last grain — that the 
die is about to be cast, and cast for ever? You may not, 
as yet, have had any startling warnings on the subject 
of mortality. Death may have been going his rounds 
elsewhere, but your circle is unbroken. Disease has 
blanched other cheeks — the arrow from the last enemy 
has paralysed other arms — but you are still strong. Others 
have been hovering for years at the entrance to the Valley, 
— but life to you is still blooming with flowers. " Death's 
dark vale " is in the far horizon. But come it will, come 
it must. Tt may be suddenly — it will be unexpectedly. 
Do not imagine that, as you get older, you will be more 
disposed to think of your preparation for your great change. 
Alas ! if that preparation be neglected now, we fear with 
most, as life advances, there will be a growing disinclina- 
tion to believe death to be nearer. They are like men walk- 
ing backwards to the grave that they may not see it — that 
the unwelcome thought may not disturb the dream of the 
present. Oh, terrible will it be to tread that Valley with the 
curse alike of temporal and eternal death brooding over it. 
To have alike the shadow of death and the reality of death. 



b 



THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 243 

Death, denuded of his sting, is still formidable. What 
must it be to confront the last enemy with the sting un- 
plucked away : — Death and what is after death ! Speak- 
ing of the wicked, the Psalmist says, (Ps. xlix. 14) " Death 
shall feed upon them;" [or, as that has been more literally 
rendered, " Death shall lead them into his pastures."] 
Death, which conducts the believer through the dark Val- 
ley to the pastures of the blessed, drives the ungodly 
into his own pastures — the bleak and dreary wastes of an 
immortality undone ! That Achor, that Valley — which to 
the believer is ' the door of hope,' is to the unbeliever the 
gloomy portal of despair. It decides his fate. An infinite 
future is from that moment sealed. It is literally " the 
Valley of Decision/' He that is unjust will remain " un- 
just still," and he that is filthy will remain "filthy still/* 
Be it ours now to flee to Him who hath vanquished death. 
Let us be able personally to appropriate the words of the 
sw T eet Psalmist of Israel, "Yea, though I walk through 
the Valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." 
"The Valley of the shadow of death I" It is the portico 
of our Father's house. As we stand under the porch, the 
archway over our heads projects a shadow. We are for a 
moment out of life's sunshine. But the next! the door 
opens; and better than the blaze of earthly sun is ours. 
The darkness is past, and the true light shineth ! 

change — wondrous change ! 

Burst are the prison bars : 
This moment there, so low 
In mortal prayer, and now, 

Beyond the stars. 



244: THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

change — stupendous change ! 

Here lies the senseless clod; 
The soul from bondage breaks, 
The new immortal wakes, 

Awakes with God I 



%\t jfiuid <§3%OT0 of % Jfkck 



'WHEN THE SON OF MAN SHALL COME IN HIS GLORY, AND ALL THE HOLY 
ANGELS WITH HIM, THEN SHALL HE SIT UPON THE THRONE OF HIS 
GLORY . AND BEFORE HIM SHALL BE GATHERED' ALL NATIONS ! AND HE 
SHALL SEPARATE THEM ONE FROM ANOTHER, A3 A SHEPHERD DIYIDETH 
HIS SHEEP FROM THE GO*ATS : AND HE SHALL SET THE SHEEP ON HIS 
RIGHT HAND, BUT THE GOATS ON THE LEFT. THEN SHALL THE KING 
SAY UNTO THEM ON HIS RIGHT HAND, COME, YE BLESSED OF MY FATHER. 
INHERIT THE KINGDOM PREPARED FOR YOU FROM THE FOUNDATION OF 
THE WORLD. . . . THEN SHALL HE SAY ALSO UNTO THEM ON THE LEFT 
HAND, DEPART FROM ME, YE CURSED, INTO EVERLASTING FIRE, PREPARED 
FOR THE DEVIL AND HIS ANGELS. . . . AND THESE SHALL GO AWAY 
INTO EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT : BUT THE RIGHTEOUS INTO LIFE ETER- 
NAL." — MATT. XXV. 31-46. 



THE FINAL GATHEBIXG OF THE FLOCK 

We have just had our thoughts directed to the beautiful 
inspired picture of the Shepherd conducting His flock 
through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. 

The next delineation of Christ's pastoral relation to His 
Church and people is a pre-eminently sublime one. The 
Shepherd-love and leadings of the wilderness are at an 
end. Earth's diverse experiences,— its green pastures and 
still waters, — its rough and rugged paths, — its places of 
temptation, — its lairs of wild beasts, — its cloudy and dark 
days, — and the Valley of death-shade terminating all, — 
these are over and past*. The flock is now seen on the 
Great day of Judgment, as depicted in the magnificent 
imagery of the passage which heads this chapter, — a pas- 
sage which stands almost, unrivalled in sacred Scripture 
for its pathos and grandeur. 

Viewing Christ as the Great Shepherd of the Sheep, 
the time and circumstances in which He uttered the words 
are remarkable. It was but a few days previous to the 
fulfilment of the awful prophetic announcement, " Awake, 
sword, against my ..Shepherd !" when the Shepherd was 
to be smitten, and the sheep to be scattered. He was now 
seated, with His disciples, on the brow of the Mount of 
Olives, over against the temple, mingling predictions of the 
doom of Jerusalem with delineations of the end of the 



248 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

world and tlie great assize. Possibly on some of the slopes 
of that mountain, or down in one of the ravines at their 
feet, His eye may have fallen on one of the many flocks of 
sheep and goats that were wont to browse on its pastures. 
The scene is suggestive. It affords an apposite symbol 
to illustrate those themes on which He had just been dis- 
coursing. That flock of mingled sheep and goats, with 
their shepherd seated on one of the grassy knolls or 
rocky eminences hard by, forms an impressive parable 
and picture of the hour, when the Almighty Shepherd, 
so soon to be smitten by the sword of Justice, and to give 
His own life for the sheep, should appear in the clouds 
of heaven with power and great glory, to dispense the 
awards of unerring equity to the countless multitudes 
" gathered before Him." 

A volume would be needed to exhaust the topics em- 
braced in this stupendous description of the Shepherd- 
judge : we can do no more than sketch a feeble outline. But 
as we do so, let it be under the impressive conviction, 
that it is a scene in which each one of us has an indi- 
vidual and solemn interest. It contains the story of our 
future. This chapter will be to each one of us yet, matter 
of 'personal history. Oh, how do all other events dwindle 
into insignificance, when brought side by side with " that 
Day!" How do all other facts seem tame and unimportant 
compared with this — " So then, every one of us must give 
account of himself to God ! " 

In taking, then, a cursory glance of the passage, let us 
note — 



THE FINAL GATHERING OF THE FLOCK. 249 

The Shepherd's N ame. It is twofold. 

He is called " The Son of man" (verse 34) * when the 
Son of man shall come in His glory." In that scene 
of unutterable majesty, when the Heavens and Earth are 
fleeing away, and there is no place found for them ; when 
the trumpet of the archangel is sounding, and the cry of 
ten thousand times ten thousand is heard, " He cometh ! 
He cometh ! to judge the earth." When the eye, in trem- 
bling emotion, is lifted to see who this august Being can 
be, whose approach is thus heralded, — Lo ! it is the Son 
of man ! The glorified humanity of the Christ of Naza- 
reth stands, as it were, in bold relief in the foreground of 
the picture. If we could imagine the myriad ranks break- 
ing the silence of the scene with a burst of praise, it would 
be in the old prophetic words — " a man " is " an hiding- 
place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest ! " 

How often is this encouraging truth, not only of Jesus 
being our Judge, but our Judge as the Son of man, un- 
folded to us in Scripture, both by our blessed Lord him- 
self, and by His inspired apostles. 

"We must all appear before the judgment-seat of 
Christ! 9 " The Father hath committed all judgment unto 
the Soil" " He hath given Him power to execute judg- 
ment also, because He is the Son of man!' " He hath ap- 
pointed a day in the which he will judge the world in 
righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained/' Pre- 
cious assurance ! that when startled from the long sleep 
of ages by the final trumpet, the first object that shall 
arrest the gaze of the rising dead will be "the living- 
Kinsman" — the Brother in our nature, — the once help? 



250 THE SHEPHEKD AND HIS FLOCK. 

less One of Bethlehem — the wearied One of Sychar — 
the tempted One of Gethsemane — the weeping One of 
Bethany — the suffering One of Calvary ! The Saviour of 
the Throne of Judgment will be the very Saviour we 
formerly loved and trusted on the Throne of Grace. How 
shall every jewel of the crown about to be bestowed on 
us be augmented in value by the thought — ' It is given 
by Jesus !' The whisper will circulate through the throng 
of the ransomed, as they gaze on their Judge, " He loved 
me, and gave Himself for me." 

But there is yet another title given here to the Shep- 
herd. It is a royal one — (verse 34.) "Then shall the 
King say unto them ; " — and as a King (it is said in verse 
31,) " He is to come in His glory" — and to " sit on the 
throne of His glory" It is the only passage in His Gos- 
pels where He assumes the name and title of King. The 
Shepherd and the Fold for the moment melt from the 
view, and we see a Monarch seated on His tribunal or 
judgment-seat. The rod and the staff have dropped from 
His hand, — and the sceptre of equity takes their place. 
He is about to pronounce a regal sentence ; — the insignia of 
royalty are around Him ; — He has u prepared His throne 
for judgment." He is about, not only for Himself to enter 
on His final mediatorial reign and kingdom, but also 
to grant to His ransomed Church investiture with their 
royal rights and prerogatives. '* The children of Zion are 
joyful in their King." On His vesture and on His thigh 
is seen written, " King of kings, and Lord of lords." 
What that glory here spoken of is to be, it is not for us to 
conjecture or attempt to depict. We may believe it will far 



THE FINAL GATHERING OF THE FLOCK. 251 

transcend our present feeble comprehension. The universe 
will accumulate its rarest treasures to enhance the magni- 
ficence of that advent, and to swell the shout of jubi- 
lant welcome. If creation hid her face in darkness at the 
hour of the crucifixion, — if the reeling earth was convulsed 
in paroxysms of anguish, and the sun put sackcloth on 
his disc, at the spectacle of that shameful death, — shall 
not that creation, which thus mourned His humiliation 
and suffering, array herself in holiclay-attire to grace His 
triumph ? — Putting off her sackcloth, shall she not be 
girded with gladness, to the end that her glory may sing 
praise to her Eedeeming Lord, and not be silent ? What 
a contrast ! — that once buffeted and forsaken Man, whose 
infant dwelling was canopied by the rude rafters of 
a Judean stable ; — whose unpillowed head was oft denied 
the meanest shelter afforded to beast or bird ; — whose 
sceptre was the rod of mockery, and His only throne the 
bitter cross ; — What a contrast with the king, on whose 
head shall be " many crowns/' and whose hand shall* grasp 
the rod and sceptre of universal empire ! The lofty sum- 
mons of the Psalmist will then receive its full response — 
" Make -a joyful noise before the Lord, the King ! for He 
cometh to judge the earth; with righteousness shall He 
judge the world, and the people with equity." "Thy 
throne, God, is for ever and ever ! " 

We have next to note his retinue, (ver. 31.) "All the 
holy angels ivith Him! 1 These blessed beings are repre- 
sented as profoundly interested in the gradual unfolding 
of the plan of Eedemption. When the amazing scheme 



252 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK, 

was first broached in the counsels of Heaven, " the morn- 
ing stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted 
for joy." During the progress and development of the 
mediatorial kingdom on earth, either singly or in groups 
and companies, they came down to visit the theatre of the 
coming Saviours sufferings. A vast throng congregated 
at the lawgiving on Sinai ; — " The chariots of God are 
twenty thousand, even thousands of angels ; the Lord is 
among them as in Sinai, in the holy place/' We read of " a 
multitude of the heavenly host " praising God in the plains 
of Bethlehem. In these and similar instances, however, 
we have only (so to speak) delegates and representatives 
from the great celestial army. But, on this great Day, 
"all His holy angels" are to be with Him. Dominions, 
principalities, powers, are for the time to vacate their 
thrones to crowd the firmament of judgment. He is to 
"call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that 
he may judge his people." With what delight will these 
blessed Beings respond to the invitation, " Let us be glad 
and rejoice, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his 
wife hath made herself ready." If they came, with joyful 
alacrity, to sustain the adorable Sufferer on the mount of 
temptation, — to wipe the blood-drops from His brow in 
Gethsemane, — to guard His vacant sepulchre, and pro- 
nounce the victory of Ptedemption achieved, — with what 
gladness will they go forth on His great Coronation-day, 
with the sound of their trumpets, to gather in His elect 
from the four winds of Heaven ! 

Angels constitute the brilliant retinue of the Great 



THE FINAL GATHEKING OF THE FLOCK. 253 

Judge — His assessors on the final Day of reckoning. Our 
attention is next called to the - throng ranged in front of 
His tribunal, (ver. 32.) "Before him shall he gathered 
ALL NATIONS." What a convocation! no unit missing of 
the countless millions. AH that have ever lived — from 
Adam to the last of the human family. We have read in 
history, sacred and profane, of vast assemblages of human 
beings. The hosts of Israel as they mustered on the 
night of the Exodus ; — the mighty concourse of the He- 
brew nation, as Solomon dedicated his temple, — this same 
Mount of Olives, where Christ delivered the words we are 
now considering, densely thronged to its summit with the 
awe-struck worshippers. We have read of the hosts of 
Xerxes and Alexander, of the invading hordes, — the figura- 
tive locust-multitudes of Alaric and Attila. But what are 
these, and many others ? insignificant nothings, in com- 
parison with the ranks of this multitudinous army who have 
in a moment burst from their graves, their pulses beating 
with immortality ! The sea shall give up its dead : — the 
thousands who filled its caverns in the days of the flood — 
the millions who, since that time, have in every age been 
gathered- into its rapacious holds by storm and tempest ; 
— the proud hosts, which, like Pharaoh's, perished in 
the waves; — the crews of stranded navies; — and the 
lonely wasted invalid, who has been let down, in slow, 
solemn burial over the ship's side, — the rippling waters 
chiming his requiem ! The Earth shall give up its dead ; 
— the tenants of the unknown, and unnoted heaps of the 
village churchyard, — those whose winding-sheet has been 
the snows of the mountain, or who lie uncoffined in the 



254 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

mounds of the battle-field ; — kings and princes from 
their pyramids and cenotaphs. Earth and sea shall seem 
like two gigantic mausolea ; the buried dust of all ages 
and all climes, so long in their custody, shall be gathered, 
moulded, re-adjusted; — disembodied spirits hastening to 
re-inhabit their new resurrection-tabernacles. " All na- 
tions !" Egypt with her crouching slaves — the children of 
Edom and the children of Abraham; — the subject-millions 
of Babylon and Assyria — martial Eome with a vassal world 
at her feet — Greece waking up from the dreams of her 
false philosophy — rude Savages of the hyperborean regions 
bursting their ice-bound tombs ; — effeminate Pagan tribes 
from the climes of the Sun, — hordes of cannibals from the 
Isles of the Pacific, — roving tribes from the forests and 
prairies of the far west, — Britain with her million-peopled 
cities, and the children of her gigantic colonies — and 
thus, all at once and together — " the dead, small and 
great, shall stand before God." Yes, and more solemn 
than all — as has already been observed, the eyes which 
now trace these pages shall gaze on the unutterable 
majesty of the descending Judge. These ears shall listen 
to that trumpet peal — these feet swell the tread of these 
deathless thousands ! 

Observe, next in order, the separation, (ver. 32.) 
"He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd 
divideth his sheep from the goats." To understand this 
figure aright, we must bear in remembrance that in Pales- 
tine, the long hairy wool of the sheep makes the animal so 



THE FINAL GATHERING OF THE FLOCK. 255 

similar in appearance to the goat, that an unpractised eye, 
in looking at the flock browsing on the same meadow, 
would be at a loss to distinguish betwixt them. But the 
discriminating shepherd has no such difficulty; — he can 
tell at a glance "the one from the other;" and before 
folding them for the night, can easily effect their sepa- 
ration. So it is with the Great Shepherd and Bishop of 
souls. At present, — in this our earthly condition, — the 
sheep and goats — believers and unbelievers — righteous 
and wicked — good and bad — are *so intermingled, that 
often the most discriminating human eye cannot detect 
the difference. The tare, or spurious wheat, mingles with 
the true grain. The hypocrite and formalist, under the 
mask of religious profession, passes for the true Christian ; 
— separation is often impossible. But on that Day — the 
final separation shall take place. The possibility of pre- 
tence and appearance will be at an end. The shibboleth 
of party will be heard no more. Here, we have the Church 
of Christ split up and severed into endless divisions, — 
those of " Paul, and those of Apollos, and those of Cephas." 
We have society, too, with its conventional grades and 
distinctions ; — rich and poor, master and servant, learned 
and unlearned. There will then be two, and only two 
classes ;— the sheep and the goats — the wheat and the 
chaff — the vessels unto honour, and the vessels unto dis- 
honour — those who are Christ's people, and those who are 
not — those who love Baal, and those who love God. i( He 
shall set the sheep upon his right hand, and the goats upon 
the left." Each shall stand in his own lot at the end of 



256 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

the dayb. There will be no middle ground : — no place 
of compromise. Between the two separated multitudes 
" there is a great gulf fixed i 

We have next, the Shepherd's address to the sheep,— 
the King's welcome to His Church, (ver. 34.) "Then shall 
the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed 
of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for yon, from 
the foundation of the world?' "Come ! " What music in 
that word ! It is the old, blessed, gospel utterance to which 
they first listened in the depths of ruin and despair, when 
sin-burdened and sorrow-burdened, — " Gome unto me, all 
ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest." As that word was His first invitation of love in 
the day of espousals, so it is His last invitation and wel- 
come in this the day of final triumph. He spake it from 
the cross, He now speaks it from the throne ! It is taken 
up by the concentric ranks of surrounding angels. All 
Heaven echoes and bids the ransomed welcome. " Come!" 
It contains the essence of their Heaven : for it tells them 
that they are to be the sharers and companions of His 
own glory. What if He had slightly altered the formula ? 
What, if, instead of "Ye blessed ones, Come" He had said 
rather, " Ye blessed ones, Go, to a kingdom I have provided 
for you. Angels ! conduct from My presence this ransomed 
people I have redeemed. Furnish them with crowns and 
thrones in that distant celestial city ; and since I am to 
be no longer with them, be ye to them a holy brother- 
hood, — make them partakers of your joys ! * How would 
every face droop in sadness ! Heaven would have a blight 



THE FINAL GATHERING OF THE FLOCK. 257 

passed over it. Its ransomed worshippers would exclaim 
— ' Our thrones are denuded of their glory — our crowns of 
their lustre. Saviour, without Thee ! ' But it is not so. 
His very opening declaration dispels their dread. ''Come!" 
Wherever, your heaven is, it is to be a heaven with Me : 
we are to share our crowns and thrones together. " Him 
that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me on My throne.'*' 
" Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 

And in connexion with this invitation, observe farther, 
the Heritage bestowed, " Inherit the Kingdom!' He is seated 
on that throne as a Shepherd-King, and it is a Kingdom that 
is His gift. We have spoken elsewhere of heaven as the 
many mansions of His Fathers house. But now it is a joint- 
kingly inheritance with Himself, the elder Brother. By 
virtue of their adoption into the covenant family, they are 
heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. Nor is the 
investiture with these mighty and amazing privileges any 
sudden and capricious mark of the divine favour. It is 
a kingdom which had been "prepared for them from the 
foundation of the ivorld" God had destined them, from 
all eternity, for surpassing honours. He is only now 
fulfilling the purposes of His own infinite, everlasting love. 
As the fond mother, in the prospect of welcoming her 
absent son from a distant land, has his chamber bedecked 
and furnished with every memorial and souvenir which 
love and affection can devise, — so has God, the Infinite 
Father of His people, been providing for the reception of 
His long absent children. He has been "preparing" a 
kingdom fitted to meet and satisfy the amplest longings 
and aspirations of their immortal natures. " I saw," says 

R 



258 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

John, " the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from 
God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her 
husband ! " 

We shall not enter on the awful antithetical portion of 
this passage, when the Judge of mankind turns to the left 
hand to pronounce sentence on the wicked. " Depart," He 
says. And in that one word, lies the fearful element of their 
condemnation. They are banished from His presence. The 
"Come" of the righteous, stands in marked contrast with 
this exile of the unrighteous. "Depart, ye cursed !" what 
a saying to issue from the lips of supreme Benignity, 
Kindness, and Love ! It is the first and the last curse of 
Christ. It is the first and last malediction uttered by 
Him, whose mission was "not to destroy men's -lives but 
to save them." And their doom is everlasting,; — "ever- 
lasting fire." Men may torture that expression as they 
may, to extract a limited and modified meaning. They 
may try to reason themselves into a less gloomy theology. 
But the Word of God in too many unmistakable passages 
closes their lips. "These shall go away into everlasting 
punishment." " He which is filthy, let him be filthy still." 
"Their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched." 
" Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire,— 
wdio shall dwell with everlasting burnings ! " 

And yet once more : — Observe the great judicial prin- 
ciple in the aivarcls of the Shepherd- Judge. It is the 
works of those at His tribunal. The test enunciated is — 
"Inasmuch as ye did it," or, "inasmuch as ye did it not." 



THE FINAL GATHERING OF THE FLOCK. 259 

Justified by faith, the}" are to be sifted, proved, and judged 
by deeds. It is those who, in the first instance, have found 
pardon and peace in the efficacious merits and sacrifice of 
the Divine Redeemer, — who have sat under the shadow of 
His cross, and exulted in the assurance that the blood of 
Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin, — to whom He will 
address the invitation — ' Come, inherit the blood-bought 
kingdom ! ? But He thinks also of the cup of cold water 
— the clothing of the poor — the sheltering of the orphan — 
as being evidences of love to Himself; — or He thinks of 
the evading of all these works of mercy by the selfish pro- 
fessor, as the too truthful test of the lack of that love. 
' 1/ says He, ' am the sick One — the homeless One — the 
naked One — the captive One ; — ye did it — or ye did it not 
to Me!' 

Let us remember this;* it is "charity'" in the true sense 
of the word, — love to God, generating all those loving 
virtues, of which love is the parent, which will decide our 
final bliss or woe. Religion, if true, can never be quenched 
in an unloving, selfish life. The criterion on " that day "' 
will not be, what we have well said, or well thought, or 
well intended, but what we have "well done!" Sem- 
blances will be nothing then; — party distinctions will be 
nothing then ; — appearing to be a Christian will be nothing 
then; — flaming orthodoxy, the most evangelical creed in 
Christendom, apart from a loving nature, will be nothing 
then. It will be doers alone who will be justified. The 
demand will be, " Show me thy faith by thy works." Xot 
that these works will unlock the gate of heaven. God 
forbid ! In themselves, and as pleas of merit, they will 



260 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

be but as "wood, and hay, and stubble." It is evident 
in this passage, and well worth noting, that from the 
righteous expressing their astonishment at the Judge's 
commendation, — they at least deemed these works and 
charities utterly valueless as a ground of justification and 
acquittal. "We thy sheep," they seem to say to their 
Shepherd, "what have we done?" But Christ does see, 
and does accept, what has been by them done to His 
people, as if it had been done to Himself. " He commends 
not the works as such, but the love which prompted them/'* 
And when He turns to those on His left hand, who are 
destitute of all such evidences of life and love, it is as if 
He said, ' Ye have been selfish, and niggardly, and unfeel- 
ing, and avaricious ; — ye cannot have kept the first table 
of the law, and loved your God, seeing ye have broken 
the second to your brother/ " Be not deceived, God is not 
mocked ; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 
reap." 

The theme of this chapter, of which we have given the 
feeblest outline, is a most solemn one. The oldest re- 
corded preacher, — in the oldest recorded sermon, takes this 
very subject for his text and discourse. "Enoch also, the 
seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold 
the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute 
judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly 
among them, of all their ungodly deeds which they have 
ungodly committed/' Every fresh age should give aug- 
mented emphasis to these words of thrilling warning. Each 

* See Alford's Greek Testament, in loc. 



THE FINAL GATHERING OF THE FLOCK. 261 

day we live, the shadow of that Throne is deepening on our 
path: — the noise of the approaching chariot-wheels becomes 
more audible. " Yet a little while/'' (and that ' little while' 
is becoming less every day,) "and He that shall come, will 
come, and will not tarry." Are we ready to meet Him ? 
Are we ready for the i( Come " of welcome ? Could we say 
in looking upwards to His advent-throne, "Lo! this is 

OX ' 

our God, we have waited for Him ? " Would He be to us 
the true Melchizedek, King of Salem, coming to bless? Or, 
terrible alternative ! have we no portion in that advent- 
scene but the Curse and the Depart ! Despise that first 
"Corae" of pardon and love — and the second " Come" of 
welcome cannot be ours. Eeject the Saviour on the 
Throne of grace, and when the Throne of judgment is set, 
and the books are opened, there can be no more blessings. 
The reign of mercy is *over. The priestly intercession is 
at an end. The prayer for the cumbering fig-tree, " spare 
it " — is no longer heard ; — the pleading Voice is silenced; — 
the door is shut. The Shepherd can no longer gather; — ■ 
the Shepherd's crook can no longer rescue ; — these terrible 
words alone linger on the Shepherd's lips — "Ye are not of 
my sheep ! ? ' Great God, avert from us such a doom ! 
Gather us to Thy fold of grace, ere we be overtaken by 
the hour of eternal separations ! " The Lord grant unto 
us, that we may find mercy of the Lord on that day ? " 



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'FOR THE LAMB. WHICH IS IN THE MIDST OF THE THRONE, SHALL FEED 
THEM, AND SHALL LEAD THEM UNTO LIVING FOUNTAINS OF WATERS; 
AND GOD SHALL WIPE AWAY ALL TEARS FROM THEIR EYES." — REY. 
VII. 17- 



THE ETEKNAL FOLDING OF THE FLOCK 

In the preceding chapter, we contemplated that majestic 
scene, — the Shepherd-King seated on the throne of His 
glory, at the great final gathering of His flock ; separating 
the sheep from the goats ; — and apportioning to each their 
.several awards. 

One, and only one additional theme remains. But it is 
that towards which all the others point and converge. It 
is the assembling of the flock within the Fold of Heaven. 
The world's long day is now over; — Time's curfew-bell is 
tolling, proclaiming that evening has come — that earth's 
fires are to be put out, and the flocks to he folded. Or 
rather, the long spring-time of everlasting bliss and glory 
has begun. The bleak herbage of the wilderness — the 
brookless channels — the falling snows — the angry tem- 
pests — the roar of the ravening wolves — are known no 
more. It is a glorious picture of unbroken sunshine;— 
gleaming pastures ; — pellucid waters, — living fountains ! 

The passage selected for these concluding meditations, 
suggests some thoughts, alike regarding the Shepherd 
and the Sheep. 

I. The Shepherd. It is evidently the vision of a pas- 
toral scene which is now in the eye of the Apostle of 
Patmos. We have all the accessories of such a scene. 



264 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

First, in the words of contrast: — where the picture of a 
flock is brought before us — bleating amid arid pastures 
— panting defenceless under the fierce rays of a burning 
sun — and turning oft their languid eyes towards waterless 
courses ; — "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any 
more, neither shall the sun light upon them, nor any heat/' 
And then observe his positive description of the bliss of 
the ransomed. It is a flock feeding on the meadows of 
Heaven, and reclining by its perennial streams. They 
are "fed" on these abiding pastures; — and "led" to "the. 
living fountains of waters." 

We look for the completion of the picture. We see the 
rejoicing sheep browsing on the everlasting hills. But we 
gaze in vain for the great central Figure. We expect to 
see the glorified Shepherd seated on some sunny eminence 
overlooking " the multitude which no man can number/' 
and which He has purchased with His own blood. Jesus 
is there; we see Him. But, strange mixture of metaphor; 
— it is not as a shepheed, but as a lamb He precedes the 
flock; — feeding them and leading them. It is one of 
those singular, dream-like transitions common in prophetic 
symbol ; — but which, when we come to examine them, 
are so significant and full of meaning. We have in a pre- 
vious apocalyptic vision, (chap, v..) a similar startling and 
remarkable figuration; startling, from the same powerful 
(we had almost said violent) change of metaphor. The 
apostle had been speaking of Christ as the "Lion of the 
tribe of Judah," breaking the seals of the prophetic roll — 
and unfolding the destinies of the Church and the world. 
In most magnificent language, he further describes all 



THE ETERNAL FOLDING OF THE FLOCK. 265 

Heaven, redeemed and unredeemed — "ten thousand times 
ten thousand, and thousands of thousands " — gathered in 
to do homage to this August Being who had " prevailed 
to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof." 
When we gaze, amid the stupendous throng, for the object 
of this adoration — lo ! we are arrested by the sight, not 
of a Lion, but of a Lamb ! It is the same in this beautiful 
pastoral vision. We lose sight for the moment,, of the Shep- 
herd ; — or, if in reality He still remains, the beloved evan- 
gelist at all events describes Him under a different symbol 
and epithet. It is the name which he himself knew so 
well, — that by which the Great Shepherd was first pointed 
out to him; — He loves it still — "Behold the Lamb of 
God r 

But there must have been some greater truth hidden 
under this change of simile than the mere association of 
the writer. Let us briefly inquire what that truth is; — in 
other words, what we may deduce from this apparently 
singular metaphor, of the Lamb leading the flock to their 
pastures of blessedness. 

The description implies, that there will be a continual 
remembrance on the part of the ransomed, of the death 
and sufferings of their Shepherd. In that same remark- 
able passage to which we have just adverted, it is not 
only a Lamb that is represented as receiving the homage 
of countless worshippers, but it is specially noted and 
delineated, "a Lamb as it had been slain;" — a Lamb 
with the blood-marks upon it; — wounded and smitten. 
A Lamb slain ! Strange symbol, in the place where 
suffering never enters, and death is unknown! What 



266 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK 

is this, but in the most expressive figurative language 
to tell ns, that Christ's sacrificial death will ever he 
present to the thoughts of the Becleemecl ; — that Cal- 
vary's Cross and Calvary's Sufferer, — the sword awak- 
ing from its scabbard and smiting the Shepherd, will 
continue the theme of eternity. Yes, though all remem- 
brance of death and suffering -will otherwise be banished 
from Heaven; — no pang known — no pain capable of 
being either felt or feared ; it would appear, there shall, 
through all coming ages, be one exception ; one memory 
of ignominy and superhuman anguish. The once smit- 
ten Shepherd will be there, with wounds in His hands. 
"And one shall say unto Him, what are these wounds 
in thine hands ? Then He shall answer, those with which 
I was wounded in the house of my friends ! " He wears 
the sign and memorial of Buffering on His glorified body ; 
and as the Redeemed flock gaze on the significant emblem, 
they will cry to one another — " The great love wherewith 
He loved us I" " The Good Shepherd gave His own life 
for the sheep ! " * 

A second truth we may gather from this figure of the 
Lamb leading the ransomed in the Heavenly world is, the 
perpetuity of Christ's exalted human nature. It is not 
as a kingly Shepherd He leads, but as one of the flock 
Himself — wearing their nature. In an earlier portion of 
this volume, we dwelt at some length on the holy hu- 
inanity of the Son of God ; — how when He came clown to 

* See this thought powerfully expounded and illustrated in one of Canon 
Melvill's Sermons, " The Lamb Slain in the midst of the Throne." 



THE ETERNAL FOLDING OF THE FLOCK, 267 

tabernacle on earth, He set up His own tent among human 
tents. " The Word was made flesh, and dwelt" (literally, 
tented or tabernacled) " among us." i( In all things He was 
made like unto His brethren." He was Brother in our 
nature, — " bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh ! " 
What of His Divine Person, now that He is exalted? 
How in this respect will He stand related to His ran- 
somed flock and fold to all eternity ? 

He is, and ever will be " that same Jesus" unchanged and 
unchangeable. John, when he first saw Him in his Resur- 
rection glories in Patmos, "fell at His feet as one dead." 
On many antecedent occasions, it had been otherwise with 
that favoured disciple. He had oft times enjoyed with 
Him, confiding, endearing fellowship. He had pillowed 
his head on His bosom at the last Supper ; — He had re- 
ceived the last injunction and benediction of love from 
His lips on the cross. Xow, however, when He beheld 
the lustre of His ascended majesty ;— His feet like burning 
brass — His eyes like a flame of fire — His voice like the 
noise of many waters — the bright blaze of unearthly glory 
projected on His path, — he fell prone to the ground, awe- 
struck and speechless. But a gentle Hand is laid upon 
him; — a gentle Voice restores his confidence. It is the 
Lamb of God still! — The Brother with His changeless 
human tenderness ! " He laid his right hand upon me, 
saying, Fear not ; I am He that livetli and was dead, and 
behold I am alive for evermore." And in the vision we 
are now considering, he sees the Lamb — the glorified Pie- 
deemer — still retaining the identical nature in which He 
suffered, " leading" His people in the realms of everlasting 



268 THE SHEPHEED AND HIS FLOCK. 

day ! Christ's mediatorial kingdom, with regard to His 
saints, shall continue for ever. With respect to His 
enemies — after their final trial- and doom, that reign shall 
cease. It is said, "Then shall He deliver up the king- 
dom " — (that portion of His sovereignty which has refer- 
ence to the wicked) — "to God, even the Father:" — (into 
the hands of God absolute.) But it is different with 
His reign over His ransomed and triumphant Church — 
" of the increase of His government and peace there shall 
be no end." God hath given Him " length of days for 
ever and ever." The Lamb, " slain from the foundation 
of the world," is still, in the glories of exalted Humanity, 
to lead His Eedeemed to the living fountains of war.:-. 
In name, and nature, and love, Jesus Christ is " the same 
yesterday, to-day, and for ever ! M 

Let us pass now from the glorified Leadee to the glori- 
fied FLOCK. Let us gather a few thoughts, from what is 
here said, regarding the Eedeemed in glory. The Lamb 
feeds them, and leads them to living fountains of waters, 
and God wipes away all tears from their eyes. 

The first thought these words suggest is —that all the 
joys of the ransomed Flock will be associated with the 
love and companionship of their Shepherd. He feeds — He 
leads — He wipes away all tears from their eyes ; — and in 
a previous verse, (15,) under a different figure, it is said, 
"He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among the :," 
Heaven would be no heaven without Jesus. Take Him 
away ! It would be to blot out the sun from the cele ; 



THE ETEENAL FOLDING OF THE FLOCK. 269 

firmament; — every star would hide its face; — the angel 
would disrobe him of his shining attire, and stand in 
sackcloth before the vacant throne ! Take Him away ! 
let the Shepherd leave His Eedeemed Church, — and yon 
might give the flock heaven's choicest pastures, — you 
might sentinel the heavenly fold with archangels,— it 
would be no compensation for the loss. The long for- 
gotten cry would ascend piteously amid the fairest land- 
scapes of Paradise Eegained ; — " Tell me, Thou whom 
my soul loveth, where Thou feeclest, where Thou makest 
Thy flock to rest at noon ! " But He, the Shepherd-King, 
whose invitation on the throne of judgment was, — " Come, 
ye blessed/' — will be true to His word. As He was with 
them in all places whither they were scattered in the 
cloudy and dark day, — so, in the bright and cloudless day 
of glory ; in all places He will be with them. We may 
take the words of a beafutiful parallel passage of Old Tes- 
tament, and give them a heavenly meaning; — " Their pas- 
tures shall be in all high places ; they shall not hunger 
nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun smite them; for 
He that hath mercy on them shall lead them — even by 
the springs of water shall He guide them/'' " Leading " 
them, "feeding" them, — wiping the very tear-drops from 
their eyes. What figurative language could express nearer, 
closer, more intimate fellowship and communion! The 
fellowship of the believer and his Saviour on earth, — 
alas ! how fitful, intermittent, transient ! He is too often 
"like a stranger in the land, and like a wayfaring man, 
that turneth aside to tarry for a night/' But in Heaven, 
in the full vision and fruition of a Saviour-God, — the song 



270 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

lisped here, often with trembling lips and stammering 
tongue, will rise triumphant from an ever-present experi- 
ence of its bliss — "Who shall separate me from the love 
of Christ?" "Thou wilt show me the path of life. In 
Thy presence there is fulness of joy !" 

Oh what a motive for holiness of life and character does 
this thought supply ! Heaven, an eternity with Jesus. 
Heaven, everlasting companionship with infinite purity, 
tenderness, love. To enjoy Him, I must be like Him. 
Earthly friendships are formed and cemented by identity 
and similarity of tastes, pursuits, and enjoyments. What 
should be my life-long aspiration now, in the prospect of 
living for ever in the presence and fellowship of the 
Holy Oxe? "Let every man that hath this hope in him 
purify himself, even as He is pure ! " 

This description would seem to denote, an infinite pro- 
gression in the joys and felicities of the Ransomed flock. 
The Shepherd is seen leading them from pasture to pas- 
ture, from fountain to fountain, from eminence to emi- 
nence, — higher and yet higher up the hills of God. On 
earth, the pilgrim company are represented as going i: from 
strength to strength/' It will be so, in a nobler sense, in 
Heaven. As the loftier we ascend a mountain, the wider 
is the landscape that is^ spread before us ; — so the higher 
the heavenly pilgrim mounts in his ever-upward ascent — 
the wider will be the horizon and circumference of his 
joys. His song will be the true "Song of degrees/' He 
will be attaining ever new views of God; — new unfold- 
ings, and revelations of the Divine purposes; — new motives 



THE ETERNAL FOLDING OF THE FLOCK. 271 

for the ceaseless activities of his holy being. Heaven will 
thus, in the language of the old divines, be "a rest without 
a rest." " They rest." (i They rest not." 

. Such is the beautiful delineation here given in the vision 
of the Seer of Patmos. The Lamb is represented first as 
<: feeding'' His flock. They lie down at His side, in restful 
repose, by the green pastures of His love, — basking under 
the sunshine of His smile. Xext, the Lamb is represented 
as " leading" them. The rest is for the time over. He leads 
them deeper and yet deeper, through these sunlit meads, 
along these glorified valleys, to new living fountains of 
water ; — ever advancing, yet never reaching the plenitude 
of bliss ; — satisfied to the full, and yet ever new satisfac- 
tion: — pastures ever greener — waters ever clearer — the sun 
of their joy ever climbing the sky and never reaching the 
meridian. The plummet-line let down, and vet the cry 
ever the same, ascending from the unsounded infinite of 
love — " Oh the depth ! " 

The figurative language of the evangelist further indi- 
cates, that there will be an unfolding of the Shepherd's 
wisdom and faithfulness in His earthly dispensations. 
Not only is the Lamb to feed them with gracious views of 
the Divine dealings, and to lead them from fountain to 
fountain of wisdom, and goodness, and grace : — but by a 
beautiful and most expressive symbol, God is represented 
as wiping away all tears from their eyes. As if, when 
they entered glory, some lingering tears were still there. 
As if the eye had not recovered from the night of 
earthly weeping. But, ere long, no remaining vestige of 



272 THE SHEPHZBD AND HIS FLOCK. 

sorrow will be found. As in a forest, after a drench- 
ing thunder-shower, every bough, and blade, and leaf is 
dripping with rain ; for a considerable time after the 
sun has shone out, and the sky is blue, and the birds of 
the grove are singing, — the lingering drops gem the 
branches, and sprinkle the sward. But the sun is up : 
and his genial rays are drinking up the moisture — nature's 
tear-drops. One by one they evaporate, — slowly, gradu- 
ally; and the refreshed forest rejoices, and basks in the 
sun's radiance. So with the great Sun of Deity in heaven. 
One by one, earth's remaining tears vanish before the radi- 
ance of that Sun of Wisdom and Love. Weeping can 
be no more; — the fountain of weeping, — the memory of 
weeping, are gone for ever! Beautiful as are the preceding 
representations of the Lamb leading, and feeding, — we love 
to dwell on this finishing touch in the inspired picture — ■ 
" God wiping away all tears from the eyes." Do you 
wonder, Header, at your Shepherd's dealings ? Are you 
apt, with misgiving heart, to ask— why that desolation of 
the earthly fold ? why that angry hurricane — that hoarse 
night -wind — that pelting rain, which destroyed the 
choicest pasture, and maddened into foaming torrent the 
calm still water — sweeping loved ones down the resistless 
flood? Yes! and you may carry these tearful eyes with 
you as you enter heaven. But there is a gracious Hand 
waiting there to wipe each one of them away. These 
lingering drops will be crystal lenses, through which, as 
you enter glory, you will see in vivid manifestation the 
loving-kindness and faithfulness. of your Heavenly Father. 
Are you wondering now why that wolf of the forest was 



THE 'ETERNAL FOLDING OF THE FLOCK. 273 

allowed to prowl upon your path ? You will see then, 
that it was to lead you nearer, and keep you nearer the 
Great Shepherd. Do you wonder why these springs and 
rills of earthly happiness were withdrawn, or dried in their 
channels? — why a blight was suffered to pass over your 
earthly pasture ? It was to lead you to feel and to exclaim 
— '0 God, all my happiness, — all my springs, are in 
Thee!' Do you wonder now why that lamb of the flock 
was early taken ? You will see then, that it was in ordei 
to lead yourself through the wick'et-gate. He emptied thy 
home, and thy heart, and thy Fold on earth — that He 
might lead thee and thine to the better Fold above. 
Following the steps of the Heavenly Shepherd, as one by 
one in the fold of the ransomed — these " loved and lost 
ones " — will be revealed to your sight, one here, one there, 
reposing in the celestial,, pastures ; — when you see to what 
a blessed land you had early sent your children, — how 
will the once tear-bedimmed eye have its every tear 
wiped away; — and at the contemplation of God's wisdom 
and love, in what appeared at the time the dark pro- 
vidences of earth — the ever deepening song will ascend — 
"So we Thy people and sheep of Thy pasture, will give 
Thee thanks for ever ! " 

Yet once more, this description would seem to indicate, 
that there will be a variety and diversity in the joys of 
Heaven, suited to the various capacities and tastes of the Re- 
deemed. It is not to one fountain to which the Lamb is said 
to lead them ; they are " living- fountains of waters!' Like 
the four-branched river in the first earthly Eden, there 

s 



274 THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

will be, from the one great river of Deity, streams which 
make glad the city of God. There will be some streams of 
calm, pellucid, peaceful meditation ; — some that leap from 
rock to rock, singing their way onward, bearing in their 
course refreshment and joy. The pastures will be different. 
Some will delight to feed on the pastures of knowledge ; — 
some to repose on the pastures of love; — some to climb 
the mountain in the ceaseless activities of holy ardour, — ■ 
their truest rest will be worship — their highest joy, holy 
work and labour. We delight to think of the Flock of 
Heaven — each member of it perfect in the full measure of 
its own bliss — but each under the Shepherd's eye, thus 
following the pasture, or climbing the mountain-steep, or 
browsing by the streamlet, it most loves. And yet, all the 
Fold, in these separate and distinctive ways, combining to 
glorify their Shepherd-King. 

Flock of the ransomed ! while yet out in the lower valley, 
■ — not unfrequently, it may be, overtaken by the cloud 
and the storm, — cleave more and more closely to your 
Divine Shepherd. He has promised to give you " grace 
and glory ; " — admission to the Fold on earth, and an ever- 
lasting entrance into the better Fold above. Some who 
read these pages may possibly be scattered far and wide, 
feeding on different pastures, penned in different earthly 
folds, and tended by different under-shephercls. May we 
meet at last, an undivided Flock, under the One Shepherd, 
amid more enduring pastures ! Make sure now of your 
personal and saving interest in His Shepherd-love. Enter 
by the one door into the sheep-fold. Follow with unwaver- 



THE ETERNAL FOLDING OF THE FLOCK. 2?0 

ing eye His footsteps ; — repose on Him your "burdens ; — 
confide to Him your misgivings and fears. Let life be a 
happy, peaceful reclining by the green pastures and still 
waters of His love. Let Death's anticipated valley-gloom 
be dispelled by a present and habitual leaning on the 
rod and staff of His immutable promises; "and when 
the CHIEF SHEPHERD shall appear, ye shall re- 
ceive A CROWN OF GLORY, THAT FADETH NOT AWAY !" 



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